it as some of a higher degree The thing pretended by Eminent Hypoâ—â—ites is to be zealous eminent Christians or at least to be sincere in a special manner while they discern the common Hypocrite not to be sincere 2. The cloak of seeming or pretense by which they would be thought to be what they are not is any thing in gâ—neral that hath an appearance of Godliness and is apt to make others think them godly And thus there are diverse sorts of Hypocrites according to the variety of their cloaks or ways of dissimulation though hypocrisie it self be in all of them the same thing As among the very Mahometanes and Heathens there oft arise some notable Hypocrites that by pretended Revelations and austerity of life profess themselves as Mahomet did to be Holy persons that had some extraordinary familiarity with God or Angels So among the Papists there are besides the common ones as many sorts of Hypocrites as they have self-devised Orders And every where the cloak of the common Hypocrite is so thin and transparent that it sheweth his nakedness to the more intelligent sort And this puts the Eminent Hypocrite upon some more laudable pretense that is not so transparent As for instance the Hypocrisie of common Papists whose cloak is made up of penances and ceremonies of saying over latine words or numbering words and beads for prayers with all the rest of their trumpery before named Chap. 3. Gr. Dir. 15. Dir. 11. is so thin a cloak that it will not â—atisfie some among themselves but they withdraw into distinct societies and orders the Church and the profession of Christianity being not enough for them that they may be Religious as if they saw that the rest are not Religious And then the common sort of ungodly Protestants have so much wit as to see through the cloak of all the Popish Hypocrisie and therefore they take up a fitter for themselves and that is the name of a Protestant Reformed Religion and Church joyned to the Common Profession of Christianity The Name or Profession of a Christian and a Protestant with going to Church and a heartless lip-service or saying their Prayers is the cloak of all ungodly Protestants Others discerning the thinness of this cloak do think to make themselves a better and they take up the strictest opinions in Religion and own those which they account the strictest party and own that which they esteem the purest and most spiritual worship The cloak of these men is their opinions pâ—rty and way of worship while their carnal lives detect their Hypocrisie Some that see through all these pretenses do take up the most excellent cloak of all and that is An appearance of serious spirituality in Religion with a due observation of all the outward parts and means and a Reformation of life in works of piety Iustice and charity I say An appearance of all these which if they had indeed they were sincere and should be saved in which the Godly Christian goeth beyond them all § 4. By this it is plain that among us in England all men that are not Saints are Hypocrites because that all except here or there a Jew or Infidel profess themselves to be Christians and every true Christian is a Saint They know that none but Saints or Godly persons shall be saved And there is few of them that will renounce their hopes of Heaven and therefore they must pretend to be all godly And is it not most cursed horrid hypocrisie for a man to pretend to Religion as the only way to his salvation and confidently call himself a Christian while he hateth and derideth the power and practice of that very Religion which he doth profess Of this see my Treat of The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite When Pâ—â—â—â— in vita sua speaketh of others extolling his eloquence he addeth his own neglect of it Ego modo bene vixisâ—em qualiter dixisâ—em parvi sacerem Venâ—osa gloria est de solo verborum splendore famam quaerere Conscientiam potius quam famam attende Falli saepe poterit fama Conscientia nunquam Seâ—ec § 5. The Hypocrites Ends in his pretenses and dissemblings are not all the same One intendeth the pleasing of Parents or some friends on whom he doth depend that will else be displeased with him and think ill of him Another intendeth the pleasing of the higher powers when it falls out that they are friends to Godliness Another intends the preserving of his esteem with religious persons that they may not judge him wicked and prophane Another intendeth the hiding of some particular villany or the success of some ambitious enterprise But the most common end is to quiet and comfort their guilty souls with an Image of that Holiness which they are without and to steal some peace to their Consciences by a lie And so because they will not be Religious indeed they will take up some shew or image of Religion to make themselves as well as others believe that they are Religious § 6. Direct 1. To escape Hypocrisie understand well wherein the life and power of Godliness doth consist Direct 1. and wherein it differeth from the lifeless Image or Corps of Godliness The life of Godliness is expressed in the 17 Grand Directions in Chap. 4. It principally consisteth in such a faith in Christ as causeth us to Love God above all and obey him before all and prefer his favour and the hopes of Heaven before all the pleasures or profits or honours of the world and to worship him in spirit and truth according to the direction of his word The Images of Religion I shewed you before § 3. Take heed of such a lifeless Image § 7. Direct 2. See that your chief study be about the Heart that there Gods Image may be planted Direct 2. and his interest advanced and the interest of the world and flesh subdued and the Love of every sin cast out and the Love of Holiness succeed and that you content not your selves with seeming to do goâ—d in outward acts when you are bad your selves and strangers to the great internal duties The first and Sic vivendum est quaâ—i in coâ—â—â—â—ctu â—â—â—amuâ— Sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis pectus intimum prospicere poâ—â—iâ— Senec. Rem dâ—â—am ex qua mâ—â—â—â—s a stimes nâ—straâ— Vix quempiam invenâ—es qui possit aperto ostiâ—â—ivâ—re jâ—â—itores conscientia nostra suposuit sic vivimus ut deprehendi sit sabiâ—â— aspici Senec. Ep. 96. great work of a Christian is about his heart There it is that God dwelleth by his spirit in his Saints And there it is that sin and Satan reign in the ungodly The great duties and the great sins are those of the heart There is the root of Good and Evil The tongue and life are but the fruits and expressions of that which dwelleth within The inward habit of sin is as a second nature And a sinful nature is worse than a sinful
that nothing is of it self and directly any part of the Christian Religion which is not there 6. It instituteth those Sacraments perfectly which are the seals of Gods Covenant with man and the delivery of the benefits and which are the Badges or Symbols of the Disciples and Religion of Christ in the World 7. It determineth what Faith Prayer and obedience shall be his appointed means and Conditions of Justification Adoption and Salvation And so what shall be Professed and Preached in his name to the World 8. It is a perfect Instrument of donation or Conveyance of our Right to Christ and of Pardon and Justification and Adoption and the Holy Spirits assistances and of Glory As it is Gods Covenant promise or deed of gift 9. It instituteth certain Ministers as his own Church officers and perfectly describeth their office as instituted by him 10. It instituteth the form of his Church Universal which is called his body And also of Particular holy societies for his Worship And prescribeth them certain Duties as the Common Worship there to be performed 11. It determineth of a weekly day even the first to be separated for and used in this holy Worship 12. It is a perfect General Rule for the Regulating of those things which it doth not command or forbid in particular As that all be done wisely to edification in charity peace concord season order c. 13. It giveth to Magistrates Pastors Parents and other Superiours all that power by which they are authorized to oblige us under God â—o any undetermined particulars 14. It is the perfect Rule of Christs Judging Rewarding and punishing at last according to which he will proceed 15. It is the only Law that is made by Primitive Power 16. And the only Law that is made by Inâ—allâ—ble wisdom 17. And the only Law which is faultless and hath no thing in it that will do the subject any harm 18. And the only Law which is from Absolute Power the Rule of all other Laws and from which Psal. 12. 6. 19. 7 8 9 10. Psal. 119. there is finally no appeal Thus far the holy Scripture with the Law of nature is our perfect Rule But not in any of the following respects 1. It is no particular revelation or perfect Rule of natural Sciences as Physicks Metaphysicks c. 2. It is no Rule for the Arts for Medicine Musick Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Grammar Râ—eâ—orick Logick nor for the Mechanicks as Navigation Architecture and all the Trades and occupations of men no not Husbandry by which we have our food 3. It is no particular Rule for all the muâ—able subordinate duties of any societies It will not serve instead of all the Statutes of this and all other Lands nor tell us when the Terms shall begin and end nor what work every Parent and Master shall set his Children and Servants in his family c. 4. It is no full Rule in particular for all those Political principles which are the ground of humane Laws As whether each Republick be Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical What person or of what Family shall Reign Who shall be his Officers and Judges and how diversified so of his Treasury Munition Coin c. 5. It is no Rule of Propriety in particular by which every man may know which is his own Land or house or goods or Cattle 6. It is no particular Rule for our natural actions what meat we shall eat what Cloaths we shall wear So of our rest labour c. 7. It is no particular Law or Rule for any of all those Actions and Circumstances about Religion or Gods own Ordinances which he hath only commanded in general and left in specie or particular to be determined by man according to his General Laws But of these next Quest. 131. What Additions or humane Inventions in or about Religion not commanded in Scripture are lawful or unlawful Answ. 1. THese following are unlawful 1. To feign any new Article of faith or doctrine any Deut. 12. 32. Rev. 2â— 18. Col. 2. 18 19 20 21 22 23. 16 17. Mat. 15. 3 8 9. Gal. 1. 8 9. Jer. 5. 12. Jer. 14. 14. 23 25 26 32. Ezek. 13 9 19. 22. 28. Zeâ—h 13. 2 3 4 5 6. precept promise threatning prophesie or revelation and falsly to father it upon God and say that it is of him or his special Word 2. To say that either that is written in the Bible which is not or that any thing is the sense of a Text which is not and so that any thing is a sin or a duty by Scripture which is not Or to father Apocryphal Books or Texts or words upon the spirit of Christ. 3. To make any Law for the Church universal or as obligatory to all Christians which is to usurp the soveraignty of Christ For which treasonable Usurpation it is that Protestants call the Pope Antichrist 4. To add new parts to the Christian Religion 5. To make any Law which it did properly belong to the Universal Soveraign to have made if it should have been made at all Or which implyeth an accusation of ignorance oversight errour or omission in Christ and the holy Scriptures 6. To make new Laws for mens inward Heart-duties towards God 7. To make new Sacraments for the fealing of Christs Covenant and Collation of his benefits therein contained and to be the publick Tesserae Badges or Symbols of Christians and Christianity in the World 8. To feign new Conditions of the Covenant of God and necessary means of our Justification Adoption and salvation 9. To alter Christs instituted Church-Ministry or add any that are supra-ordinate co-ordinate or derogatory to their office or that stand on the like pretended ground and for equal ends 10. To make new spiritual societies or Church-forms which shall be either supra-ordinate co-ordinate Gal. 2. 5. or derogatory to the Forms of Christs Institution 11. Any impositions upon the Churches be the thing never so lawful which is made by a pretended Act. 15. 28 24 25. 2 Cor. 10. 8. 13. 10. 1 Cor. 14. 5 12 26. 2 Cor. 12. 19. Eph. 4. 12 16 1 Tim. 1 4. power not derived from God and the Redeemer 12. Any thing that is contrary to the Churches good and Edification to justice charity piety order unity or peace 13. Any unnecessary burden imposed on the Consciences of Christians especially as necessary either to their salvation communion liberty or peace 14. And the exercise of any power pretended to be either Primitive and underived or Infallible or Impeccable or Absolute 15. In general any thing that is contrary to the Authority matter form obligation honour or ends of the Laws of God in Nature or Scripture 16. Any thing which setteth up those Judaical Laws and Ceremonies which Christ hath abrogated in that form and respect in which he abrogated them 17. Where there is a doubt among sober Conscionable Christians lest in obeying man they should sin against
understood which is the chief the other cannot be referred to it When two things materially good come together and both cannot be done the greater must take place and the lesser is no duty at that time but a sin as preferred before the greater Therefore it is one of the commonest difficulties among Cases of Conscience to know which duty is the greater and to be preferred Upon this ground Christ healed on the Sabbath day and pleaded for his Disciples rubbing the ears of corn and for Davids eating the shew bread and telleth them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Divinity is a curious well composed frame As it is not enough that you have all the parts of your Watch or Clock but you must see that every part be in its proper place or else it will not go or answer its end so it is not enough that you know the several parts of Divinity or duty unless you know them in their true order and place You may be confounded before you are aware and led into many dangerous errors by mistaking the Order of several Truths And you may be misguided into heinous sins by mistaking the Degrees and Order of Duties As when duties of Piety and Charity seem to be competitors And when you think that the commands of men contradict the commands of God and when the substance and the circumstances or modes of duty are in question before you as inconsistent or when the means seemeth to cease to be a means by crossing of the end and in abundance of such cases you cannot easily conceive what a snare it may prove to you to be ignorant of the Methods and Ranks of duty § 2. Object If that he so what man can choose but be confounded in his Religion when there be so few that observe any Method at all and few that agree in Method and none that hath published a Scheme or Method so exact and clear as to be commonly approved by Divines themselves What then can ignorant Christians do Answ. Divinity is like a Tree that hath one Trunk and thence a few greater arms or boughs and Stoici dâ—â—unt virtutes sibi invicem ita esse connexas ut qui unam habuerit omnes habâ—at â—â—â—â—â—ius â—n 〈◊〉 thence a thousand smaller branches Or like the veins or nervs or arteries in the body that have first one or few trunks divided into more and those into a few more and those into more till they multiply at last into more than can easily be seen or numbered Now it is easie for any man to begin at the chief trunk and to discern the first divisions and the next though not to comprehend the number and order of all the extream and smaller branches So is it in Divinity It is not very hard to begin at the Unity of the Eternal God-head and see there a Trinity of Persons and of Primary attributes and of Relations and to arise to the principal attributes and works of God as in these Relations and to the Relations of man to God and to the great Duties of these Relations to discern Gods Covenants and chiefest Laws and the duty of man in obedience thereto and the Judgement of God in the execution of his sanctions though yet many particular truths be not understood And he that beginneth and proceedeth as he ought doth know methodically so much as he knoweth And he is in the right way to the knowledge of more And the great Mercy of God hath laid so great a necessity on us to know these few points that are easily known and so much less need of knowing the many small particulars that a mean Christian may live uprightly and holily and comfortably that well understandeth his Catechism or the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments and may find daily work and consolation in the use of these § 3. A sound and well composed Catechism studied well and kept in memory would be a good measure of knowledge to ordinary Christians and make them solid and orderly in their understanding and in their proceeding to the smaller points and would prevent a great deal of â—rror and miscarriage that many by ill teaching are cast upon to their own and the Churches grief Yea it were to be wished that some Teachers of late had learnt so much and orderly themselves Direct 4. BEgin not too early with Controversies in Religion and when you come to them let them Direct 4. have but their due proportion of your time and zeal But live daily upon these certain great substantials which all Christians are agreed in § 1. I. Plunge not your selves too soon into Controversies For 1. It will be exceedingly to your loss by diverting your souls from greater and more necessary things You may get more encrease of holiness and spend your time more pleasingly to God by drinking in deeper the substantials of Religion and improving them on your hearts and lives 2. It will corrupt your minds and instead of humility charity holiness and heavenly mindedness it will feed your Pride and kindle faction and a dividing zeal and quench your charity and possess you with a wrangling contentious Spirit and you will make a Religion of these sins and lamentable distempers 3. And it is the way to deceive and corrupt your judgements and make you erroneous or heretical to your own perdition and the disturbance of the Church For it 's two to one but either you presently err or else get such an itch after Notions and Opinions that will lead you to error at the last Because you are not yet ripe and able to judge of those things till your minds are prepared by those truths that are first in order to be received When you undertake a work that you cannot do no wonder if it be ill done and must be all undone again or worse Perhaps you will say That you must not take your Religion upon trust but must prove all things and held fast that which is good Answ. Though your Religion must not be taken upon trust there are many controverted smaller Opinions that you must take upon trust till you are capable of discerning them in their proper evidence Till you can reach them your selves you must take them on trust or not at all Though you must believe all things of common necessity to salvation with a Divine faith yet many subservient truths must be received first by a humane faith or not received at all till you are more capable of them Nay there is a humane faith necessarily subservient to the Divine faith about the substance of Religion and the Officers of Christ are to be trusted in their Office as helpers of your faith Nay let me tell you that while you are young and ignorant you are not fit for Controversies about the fundamentals of Religion themselves You may believe that there is a God long before you are fit
our faith Help thou our unbelief But he that approveth of his Doubting and would have it so and thinks the revelation is uncertain and such as will warrant no firmer a belief I should scarcely say this man is a Christian. Christianity must be received as of Divine infallible revelation But controversies about less necessary things cannot be determined peremptorily by the ignorant or young beginners without hypocrisie or a humane faith going under the name of a Divine I am far from abating your Divine belief of all that you can understand in Scripture and implicitely of all the rest in general And I am far from diminishing the credit of any truth of God But the Reasons of this Direction are these § 2. 1. When it is certain that you have but a dark uncertain apprehension of any point to think it is clear and certain is but to deceive your selves by pride And to cry out against all uncertainty as sceptiâ—isme which yet you cannot lay aside is but to revile your own infirmity and the common infirmity of mankind and foolishly to suppose that every man can be as wise and certain when he list as he should be Now Reason and experience will tell you that a young unfurnished understanding is not like to see the evidence of difficult points as by nearer approach and better advantage it may do § 3. 2. If your conclusions be peremptory upon meer self-conceitedness you may be in an error for ought you know and so you are but confident in an error And then how far may you go in seducing others and censuring dissenters and come back when you have done and confess that you were all this while mistaken your selves § 4. 3. For a man to be confident that he knoweth what he knoweth not is but the way to keep him ignorant and shut the door against all means of further information When the Opinion is fixt by prejudice and conceit there is no ready entrance for the light § 5. 4 And to be ungroundedly confident so young is not only to take up with your Teachers word instead of a faith and knowledge of your own but also to forestall all diligence to know more and so you may lay by all your studies save only to know what those men hold whose judgements are your Religion Too Popish and easie a way to be safe § 6. 5. If you must never change your first opinions or apprehensions how will you grow in understanding Will you be no wiser at age than you were in childhood and after long study and experience than before Nature and Grace do tend to increase § 7. Indeed if you should be never so peremptory in your opinions you cannot resolve to hold them to the end For Light is powerful and may change you whether you will or no you cannot tell what that Light will do which you never saw But prejudice will make you resist the light and make it harder for you to understand § 8. I speak this upon much experience and observation Our first unripe apprehensions of things will certainly be greatly changed if we are studious and of improved understandings Study the Conâ—roveâ—â—â—â—s about Grace and Free-will or about other such points of difficulty when you are young and â—â—s two to one that ripeness will afterward make them quite another thing to you For my own â—â—â—â—t my judgement is altered from many of my youthful confident apprehensions And where it heldeth the same conclusion it rejecteth abundance of the arguments as vain which once it rested in And where I keep to the same Conclusions and Arguments my apprehension of them is not the saâ—â— â—ut I see more satisfying light in many things which I took but upon trust before And if I had resolved to hold to all my first Opinions I must have forborn most of my studies and lost much truth which I have discovered and not made that my own which I did hold and I must have resolved to live and dye a child § 9. The su 〈…〉 is Hold fast the substance of Religion and every clear and certain Truth which you see in its own evidence and also reverence your Teachers especially the Universal Church or the generality of wise and godly men and be not hasty to take up any private opinion And especially to contradict the Opinion of your Governours and Teachers in small and controverted things But yet in such matters receive their Opinions but with a humane faith till indeed you have more and therefore with a supposition that time and study is very like to alter your apprehensions and with a reserve impartially to study and entertain the truth and not to sit still just where you were bâ—rn Direct 12. IF Controversies â—ccasion any Divisions where you live be sure to look first to the interest of Common Truth and Good and to the exercise of Charity And become not passionate contenders for any party in the division or censurers of the peaceable or of your Teachers that will not â—ver 〈…〉 their own understandings to obtain with you the esteem of being Orthodox or zealous men But suspect your own unripe understandings and silence your Opinions till you are clear and certain and jâ—yn rather with the moderate and the peace-makers than with the Contenders and Dividers § 1. You may easily be sure that Division tendeth to the ruine of the Church and the hinderance of the Gospel and the injury of the common interest of Religion You know it is greatly condemned in the Scriptures You may know that it is usually the exercise and the increase of Pride uncharitableness and passion and that the Devil is best pleased with it as being the greatest gainer by it But on the other side you are not easily certain which party is in the right And if you were you are not sure that the matter will be worth the cost of the contention Or if it be it is to be considered whether the Truth is not like to get more advantage by managing it in a more peaceable way that hath no contention nor stirreth not up other men so much against it as the way of controversie doth And whatever it prove you may and should know that young Christians that want both parts and helps and time and experience to be throughly seen in controversies are very unfit to make themselves parties And that they are yet more unfit to be the hottest leaders of those parties and to spur on their Teachers that know more than they If the work be fit for another to do that knoweth on what ground he goeth and can foresee the end yet certainly it is not fit for you And therefore forbear it till you are more fit § 2. I know those that would draw you into such a contentious zeal will tell you that their cause is the cause of God and that you desert him and betray it if you be not zealous in it and that it is but the counsel
mind If you cast them not out with abhorrence but dispute with the Devil he hopes to prove too hard at least for such children and unprovided Souldiers as you And if you do reject them and refuse to dispute it with him he will sometime tell you that your cause is naught or else you need not be afraid to think of all that can be said against it and this way he gets advantage of you to draw you to unbelief And if you scape better than so at least he will molest and terrifie you with the hideousness of his temptations and make you to think that you are forsaken of God because such blasphemous thoughts have been so often in your minds And thus he will one while tempt you to blasphemy and another while affright and torment you with the thoughts of such temptations § 4. So also in the study of other good Books he will tempt you to fix upon all that seems difficult to you and there to confound and perplex your selves And in your Meditations he will seek to make all to tend but to confound and overwhelm you keeping still either hard or fearful things before your eyes or breaking and scattering your thoughts in pieces that you cannot reduce them to any order nor set them together nor make any thing of them nor drive them to any desirable end So in your prayers he would fain confound you either with fears or with doubtful and distracting thoughts about God or your sins or the matter or manner of your duty or questioning whether your prayers will be heard And so in your self-examination he will still seek to puzzle you and leave you more in darkness than you began and make you afraid of looking homeward or conversing with your selves like a man that is afraid to lye in his own house when he thinks it haunted with some apparitions And thus the Devil would make all your Religion to be but like the unwinding of a bottom of Yarn or a Skein of Silk that is ravelled that you may cast it away in weaâ—iness or despair § 5. Your Remedy against this dangerous temptation is to remember that you are yet young in knowledge and that Ignorance is like darkness that will cause doubts and difficulties and fears and that all these will vanish as your Light increaseth and therefore you must wait in patience till your â—â—pâ—r knowledge â—it you for satisfaction And in the mean time be sure that you take up your hearts most with the great fundamental necessary plain and certain points which your salvation is laid upon and which are more suited to your state and strength If you will be gnawing bones when you should be sucking milk and have not patience to stay till you are past your childhood no maâ—vâ—l if you find them hard and if they stick in your throats or break your teeth See that you live upon God in Christ and love and practise what you know and think of the excellency of so much as is already revealed to you You know already what is the end that you must seek and where your Happiness consisteth and what Christ hath done to prepare it for you and how you must be justified and sanctified and walk with God Have you God and Christ and Heaven to think on and all the mercies of the Gospel to delight in and will you lay by these as common matters or overlook them and pâ—rplâ—x your selves about every difficulty in your way Make clean work before you as you go and live in the joyful acknowledgement of the Mercies which you have received and â—f the practice of the things you know and then your difficulties will vanish as you go on § 6. 2. Another of Satans wiles is to confound you with the noise of Sectaâ—ies and divers opinions 2 By various Sâ—cts in Religion while the Popish Sect tell you that if you will be saved you must be of their Church and others say you must be of theirs And when you find that the Sects are many and their reasonings such as you cannot answer you will be in danger either to take up some of their Sed peâ—â—â—â—â—â—a nos opinionum varâ—eâ—as hominuâ— que dissâ—nsioâ— Et quia non idem contingit in 〈◊〉 â—os natura certos putamus Illa sic aliis secus nec iisdem sâ—mper uno modo videntur ficta esse câ—â—â—â—aâ—s Qâ—od est lâ—â—ge alâ—â—er Animis omnes tenduntur inâ—â—dâ—ae c. Ciâ—â—â—â—o 〈…〉 b. li. 1. pag. 291. 〈◊〉 cat deceits or to be confoundâ—d among them all not knowing which Church and Religion to choose § 7. But here consider that there is but One Universal Church of Christians in the world of which Christ is the Only King and Head and every Christian is a member You were Sacramentally admitted into this Catholick Church by Baptism and Spiritually by your being born of the Spirit You have all the promises of the Gospel that if you Believe in Christ you shall be saved and that all the living members of this Church are loved by Christ as members of his body and shall be presented unspotted to the Father by him who is the Saviour of his body Eph. 5. 23 24 25 26 27 29. And that by One Spirit we are all baptized or entered into this one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. If then thou hast faith and love and the Spirit thou art certainly a Christian and a member of Christ and of this Universal Church of Christians And if there were any other Church but what are the Parts of this one then this were not Universal and Christ must have two bodies Thou art not saved for being a member of the Church of Rome or Corinth or Ephesus or Philippi or Thâ—ssalonica or of any other such but for being a member of the Universal Church or body of Christ that is a Christian. And as thou art a subject of the King and a member of this Kingdom whatever Corporation thou be a member of perhaps sometime of one and sometime of another so thou art a subject of Christ what ever particular Church thou be of For it is no Church iâ— they be not Christians or subjects of Christ. For one Sect then to say Ours is the true Church and another to say Nay but ours is the true Church is as mad as to dispute whether your Hall or Kitchin or Parlor or Cole-house is your House and for one to say This is the House and another Nay but it is that when a child can tell them that the best is but a part and the house containeth them all And for the Papists that take on them to be the whole and deny all others to be Christians and saved except the subjects of the Pope of Rome it is so irrational Antichristian a fiction and usurpation and odious cruell and groundless a damnation of the far greatest part of the body of Christ that its fitter for detestation than dispute And if such a crack
would frighten the world out of their wits no doubt but other Bishops also would make use of it and say All are damned that will not be subject to us But if you would see the folly and mischief of Popery both in this and other points I refer you to my Treatise of the Catholick Church and my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and my Disput at against Johnson and my Winding-sheet for Popery § 8. 3. Another temptation to confound you in your Religion is by filling your heads with practical 3 By Sâ—rupuloâ—iâ—y scrupulosity so that you cannot go on for doubting every step whether you go right and when you should cheerfully serve your Master you will do nothing but disquiet your minds with scruples whether this or that be right or wrong Your remedy here is not by caâ—â—ing away all care of pleasing God or fear of sinning or by debauching conscience but by a cheerful and quiet obedience to God so far as you know his will and an upright willingness and endeavour to understand it better and a thankful receiving the Gospel-pardon for your failings and infirmities Be faithful in your obedience but live still upon Christ and think not of reaching to any such obedience as shall set you above the need of his merits and a daily pardon of your sins Do the best you can to know the will of God and do it But when you know the Essentials of Religion and obey sincerely let no remaining wants deprive you of the comfort of that so great a Mercy as proves your â—â—ght to life â—â—â—â—nal In your sâ—â—king further for more knowledge and obedience let your care be such as tendeth to your profitting and furthering you to your end and as doth not hinder your joy and thanks for what you have received But that which destroyeth your joy and thankfulness and doth but perplex you and not further you in your way is but hurtful scrupulosity and to be laid by When you are right in the main thank God for that and be further solicitous so far as to help you on but not to hinder you It you send your servant on your message you had rather he went on his way as well as he can than stand scrupling every step whether he should set the right or left foot forward and whether he should step so far or so far at a time c. Hindering scruples please not God § 9. 4. Another way to confound you in your Religion is by setting you upon overdoing by inventions of your own when a poor soul is most desirous to please God the Devil will be Religious and set him upon some such taâ—k of Voluntary humility or Will-worship as the Apostle speaks of Col. 2. 18 20 21 22 23. or sâ—t him upon some ensnaring unnecessary Vows or Resolutions or some Popâ—sh works of conâ—â—ited supâ—rerogation which is that which Solomon calleth being righte us overmuch Eccles. 7. 16. Thus many have made duties to themselves which God never made for them and taken that for sin which God never forbad them The Popish Religion is very much made up of such Commandments of their own and Traditions of men As if Christ had not made us work enough men are forward to make much more for themselves And some that should teach them the Laws of Christ do think that their Office is in vain unless they may also prescribe them Laws of their own and give them new Precepts of Religion Yea some that are the bitterest enemies to the strict observance of the Laws of God as if it were a tedious needless thing must yet needs load us with abundance of unnecessary Precepts of their own And thus Religion is mad both wear some and uncertain and a door set open for men to enlarge it and increase the burden at their pleasure Indeed Popeâ—y is fitted to delude and quiet sleepy consciences and to torment with uncertainties the consciences that are awaked And there is something in the corrupted nature of man that inclineth him to some additions and voluntary service of his Own inventions as an offering most acceptable unto God Hence it is that many poor Christians do rashly intangle their consciences with Vows of circumstances and things unnecessary as to give so much to observe such dayes or hours in fasting and prayer not to do such or such a thing that in it self is lawful with abundance of such things which perhaps some change of providence may make accidentally their duty afterwards to do or disable them to perform their Vows And then these snares are â—â—â—â—tâ—rs on their pâ—rplâ—xâ—d consciences perhaps as long as they live Yea some of the Autonomians teach the people that things Indifferent are the fittest matter of a Vow as to live single to pâ—ssâ—ss nothing to live in solitude and the like Indeed all things lawful when they are vowed must be performed But it is unfit to be Vowed if it be not first profitable and best for our selves or others and that which is best is not indifferent it being every mans duty to choose what is best Vows are to bind us to the performance of that which God had bound us to by his Laws before They are our expression of consent and resolution by a self-obligation to obey his will And not to make new duties or Religion to our selves which eâ—se would never have been our duty § 10. To escape these snares it is necessary that you take hâ—ed of corrupting your Religion by burdens and mixtures of your own devising You are called to Obey Gods Laws and not to make Laws for your selves You may be sure that his Laws are just and good but yours may be bad and foolish When you obey him you may expect your reward and encouragement from him but when you will obey your selves you must reward your selves You may find it enough for you to keep his Laws without devising more work for your selves or feigning duties which he commanded not or sins which he forbad not Be not rash in making Vows Let them reach but unto necessary duties And let them have their due exceptions when they are about alterable things Or if you are entangled by them already consult with the most judicious able impartial men that you may come clearly â—ff without a wound There is a great deal of judgement and sincerity necessary in your Counsellors and a great deal of submission and self-denyal in your selves to bring you safely out of such a snare Avoid sin what ever you do for sinning is not the way to your deliverance And for the time to come be wiser and lay no more snares for your selves and clog not your selves with your own inventions but cheerfully obey what God commandeth you who hath Wisdom and Authority sufficient to make you perfect Laws Christs yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11. 30. and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. But if your mixtures and self-devised
your salvation Take heed lest it turn into carnal security and a perswasion of your good estate upon ill grounds or you know not why 4. Have you the Hope of glory Take heed lest it turn into a careless venterousness of your soul or the meer laying aside of fear and cautelous suspicion of your selves 5. Have you a Love to them that fear the Lord Watch your hearts lest it degenerate into a carnal or a partial Love Many unheedful young persons of different Sexes at first love each other with an honest chaste and pious Love but imprudently using too much familiarity before they were well aware it hath turned into a fleshly Love which hath proved their snare and drawn them further into sin or trouble Many have honoured them that fear the Lord who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour or that were esteemed for their parts or place by others and little honoured the humble poor obscure Christians who were at least as good as they Forgetting that the things that are highly esteemed among men are abomination in the sight of God Luke 16. 15. and that God valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world but by their graces and holiness of life Abundance that at first did seem to Love all Christians as such as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them have first fallen into some Sect and over admiring their party and have set light by others as good as them and censured them as unfound and then withdrawn their special Love and confined it to their party or to some few and yet thought that they loved the godly as much as ever when it was degenerate into a factious Love 6. Are you zealous for God and truth and holiness and against the errors and sins of others Take heed lest you lose it not while you think it doth increase in you Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal In how many thousand hath it turned from an innocent charitable peaceable tractable healing profitable heavenly zeal into a partial zeal for some Party or Opinions of their own and into a fierce censorious uncharitable scandalous turbulent disobedient unruly hurting and destroying zeal ready to wish for fire from Heaven and kindling contention confusion and every evil work Read well Iames 3. 7. So if you are meek or patient take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by To be patient is not to be meerly insensible of the affliction but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it as over-ruled by things of greater moment § 3. How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of Religion is too visible in the face of the far greatest part of the Christian world Throughout both the Eastern and the Western Churches the Papists the Greeks the Armenians the Abassines and too many others though the Essentials of Religion through Gods mercy are retained yet how much is the face of Religion altered from what it was in the dayes of the Apostles The ancient simplicity of Doctrine is turned into abundance of new or private opinions introduced as necessary Articles of Religion and alas how many of them â—alse So that Christians being too proud to accept of the ancient test of Christianity cannot now agree among themselves what a Christian is and who is to be esteemed a Christian and so they deny one another to be Christians and destroy their Charity to each other and divide the Church and make themselves a scom by their divisions to the Infidel world And thus the Primitive Unity Charity and Peace is partly destroyed and partly degenerate into the Unity Charity and Peace of several Sects among themselves The primitive simplicity in Government and Discipline is with most turned into a â—orâ—â—ble Secular Government exercised to advance one man above others and to satisfie his will and lusts and make him the Rule of other mens lives and to suppress the power and spirituality of Religion in the world The primitive simplicity of Worship is turned into such a Masque of Ceremony and such a task of formalities and bodily exercise that if one of the Apostolical Christians should come among them he would scarce think that this is the same employment which formerâ—y the Church was exercised in or scarce know Religion in this antick dress So that the amiable glorious face of Christianity is so spotted and defiled that it is hidden from the Unbelieving world and they laugh at it as irrational or think it to be but like their own And the principal hinderance of the conversion of Heathens Mahometans and other Unbelievers is the corruption and deformity of the Churches that are near them or should be the instruments of their conversion And the probablest way to the conversion of those Nations is the true Reformation of the Churches both in East and West which if they were restored to the ancient spirituality rationality and simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship and lived in charity humility and holiness as those whose hearts and conversations are in Heaven with all worldly glory and honour as under their feet they would then be so illustrious and amiable in the eyes even of Heathens and other Infidels that many would flock in to the Church of Christ and desire to be such as they And their light would so shine before these men that they would see their good works and glorifie their heavenly Father and embrace their faith § 4. The commonest way of the degenerating of all Religious duties is into this dead formality or lifeless Image of Religion If the Devil can but get you to cast off the spirituality and life of duty he will give you leave to seem very devout and make much ado with outward actions words and beads and you shall have so much zeal for a dead Religion or the Corpse of Worship as will make you think that it is indeed alive By all means take heed of this turning the Worship of God into lip-service The commonest cause of it is a carnality of mind Fleshly men will think best of the most fleshly Religion or else a slothfulness in duty which will make you sit down with the easiest part It is the work of a Saint and a diligent Saint to keep the soul it self both regularly and vigorously employed with God But â—o say over certain words by rote and to lift up the hands and eyes is â—asie And hypocrites that are conscious that they are void of the life and spirituality of Worship do think to make all up with this formality and quiet their consciences and delude their souls with a hansome Image Of this I have spoken more largely in a Book called The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite § 5. Yet run not here into the contrary extream as to think that the Body must not worship God as well as the soul or that the
thy most comprehensive odious sin and observe this as the life of all thy particular sins and hate it above all the rest This is the very death and greatest deformity of the soul the absence of Gods Image and Spirit and objectively of himself I never lothe my heart so much as when I observe how little it loveth the Lord. Methinks all the sins that ever I committed are not so lothsome to me as this want of Love to God And it is this that is the venom and malignity of every particular sin I never so much hate my self as when I observe how little of God is within me and how far my heart is estranged from him I never do so fully approve of the Justice of God if he should condemn me and thrust me for ever from his presence as when I observe how far I have thrust him from my heart If there were any sin which proceeded not from a want of Love to God I could easilier pardon it to my self as knowing that God would easilier pardon it But not to Love the God of Love the Fountain of Love the felicity of souls is a sin unfit to be pardoned to any till it be repented of and partly cured Christ will forgive it to none that keep it And when it is uncurable it is the special sin of Hell the badge of Devils and damned souls If God will not give me a heart to Love him I would I had never had a heart If he will give me this he giveth me all Happy are the poor the despised and the persecuted that can but live in the Love of God O miserable Emperours Kings and Lords that are strangers to this Heavenly Love and love their lusts above their Maker Might I but live in the fervent Love of God what matter is it in what Countrey or what Cottage or what Prison I live If I live not in the Love of God my Countrey would be worse than banishment a Palace would be a Prison a Crown would be a miserable comfort to one that hath cast away his comfort and is going to everlasting shame and woe Were we but duly sensible of the worth of Love and the odiousness and malignity that is in the want of it it would keep us from being quiet in the daily neglect of it and would quicken us to seek it and to stir it up § 23. Direct 6. Improve the principle of self-love to the promoting of the Love of God by considering Direct 6. what he hath done for thee and what he is and would be to thee I mean not carnal inordinate self-love which is the chiefest enemy of the Love of God But I mean that rational Love of Happiness and self-preservation which God did put into innocent Adam and hath planted in mans nature as necessary to his Government This natural innocent self-love is that remaining principle in the Heart of man which God himself doth still presuppose in all his Laws and Exhortations and which he taketh advantage of in his works and word for the conversion of the wicked and the perswading of his servants themselves to their obedience This is the common principle in which we are agreed with all the wicked of the world that all men should desire and seek to be happy and choose and do that which is best for themselves or else it were in vain for Ministers to preach to them if we were agreed in nothing and we had not this ground in them to cast our seed into and to work upon And if self-love be but informed and guided by understanding it will compell you to Love God and tell you that nothing should be so much Loved Every one that is a man must Love himself We will not intreat him nor be beholden to him for this And every one that Loveth himself will Love that which he judgeth Best for himself And every wise man must know that he never had nor can have any good at all but what he had from God Why do men Love lust or wealth or honour but because they think that these are good for them And would they not Love God if they practically knew that he is the Best of all for them and instead of all Unnatural unthankful heart Canst thou Love thy self and not Love him that gave thee thy self and gives thee all things Nature teacheth all men to love their most entire and necessary friends Do we deserve a reward by loving those that love us when Publicans will do the like Matth. 5. 46. Art thou not bound to love them that hate thee and curse and persecute thee ver 44 45. What reward then is due to thy unnatural ingratitude that canst not love thy chiefest friend All the friends that ever were kind to thee and did thee good were but his messengers to deliver what he sent thee And canst thou love the bearer and not the giver He made thee a man and not a beast He cast thy lot in his visible Church and not among deluded Infidels or miserable Heathens that never heard unless in scorn of the Redeemers name He brought thee forth in a Land of light In a Reformed Church where Knowledge and Holiness have as great advantage as any where in all the world and not among deluded ignorant Papists where ambition must have been thy Governour and Pride and Tyranny have given thee Laws and a formal Ceremonious Image of Piety must have been thy Religion He gave thee Parents that educated thee in his fear and not such as were prophane and ignorant and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life He spoke to thy Conscience early in thy childhood and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth He seasonably gave thee those Books and Teachers and company and helps which were fittest for thee and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee when he past by others and left them in their sins He taught thee to pray and heard thy prayer He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good He pardoned all thy grievous sins and since that how much hath he endured and forgiven He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes and brought thee up in the School of affliction so moderating them that they might not disable or discourage thee but only correct thee and keep thee from security wantonness stupidity and contempt of holy things and might spoil all temptations to ambition worldliness voluptuousness and fleshly lust By the threatnings of great calamities and death he hath frequently awakened thee to cry to Heaven and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances he hath answered thy prayers and encouraged thee still to wait upon him He hath given thee the hearty prayers of many hundreds of his faithful servants and heard them for thee in many a distress He hath strangely preserved thee in manifold dangers He hath not made thee of the
liberty were it as long as we live if it be necessary to the saving of our brethrens souls by removing the offence which hindereth them by prejudice We mâ—st not seek our own carnal ends but the benefit of others and do them all the good we can § 6. 3. As our neighbour is commanded to Love us as himself we are bound by all lawful means to render our selves amiable to him that we may help and facilitate this his Love as it is more necessary to him than to us For to help him in obeying so great a command must needs be a great duty And therefore if his very sin possess him with prejudice against us or cause him to distaste us for some indifferent thing we must as far as we can lawfully remove the cause of his prejudice and dislike Though he that hateth us for obeying God must not be cured by our disobeying him we are so far from being obliged to displease men by surliness and morasity that we are bound to pleasing gentleness and brotherly kindness and to all that carriage which is necessary to care their sinful hatred or dislike § 7. 4. We must not be self-conceited and prefer a weak unfurnished judgement of our own before the greater wisdom of another but in honor must prefer each other and the ignorant must honour the knowledge and parts of others that excel them and not be stiff in their own opinion nor wise in their own eyes nor undervalue another mans reasons or judgement but be glad to learn of any that can teach them in the humble acknowledgement of their own insufficiency § 8. 5. Especially we must reverence the judgement of our able faithful Teachers and not by pride set up our weaker judgement against them and resist the truth which they deliver to us from God Neither must we set light by the censures or admonitions of the lawful Pastors of the Church When they are agreeable to the word and judgement of God they are very dreadful As Tertullian Gal. 5. 10. 1 Cor. 5. saith If any so offend as to be banished from communion of prayer and assembly and all holy commerce it is a judgement foregoing the great judgement to come Yea if the Officers of Christ should wrong you in their censures by passion or mistake while they act in their own charge about matters belonging to their cognisance and judgement you must respectfully and patiently bear the wrong so as not to dishonour and contemn the authority and office so abused § 9. 6. If sober godly persons that are well acquainted with us do strongly suspect us to be faulty where we discern it not our selves it should make us the more suspitious and fearful and it judicious persons fear you to be Hypocrites and no sound Christians by observing your temper and course of life it should make you search with the greater fear and not to disregard their judgement And if judicious persons especially Ministers shall tell a poor fearful doubting Christian that they verily think their state is safe it may be a great stay to them and must not be sleighted as nothing though it cannot give them a certainty of their case Thus far mans judgement must be valued § 10. 7. A good name among men which is the reputation of our integrity is not to be neglected as a thing of naught for it is a mercy from God for which we must be thankful and it is a useful means to our succesful serving and honouring God And the more eminent we are and the more the honour of God and Religion is joyned with ours or the good of mens souls dependeth Qui 〈…〉 Non solem veritas in hac parte sed etiam opinio studiose quaerenda est ut te hypoâ—â—â—â—am agere interdum mâ—nâ—me poeâ—â—tâ—at said 〈…〉 harshly enough to Acosta â—â—â—i 4. c. 17. p. 413. on our reputation the more careful we should be of it and it may be a duty sometimes to vindicate it by the Magistrates justice against a slander Especially Preachers whose success for the saving of their hearers depends much on their good name must not despise it § 11. 8. The censurers of the most petulant and the scorns of enemies are not to be made light of as they are their sins which we must lament nor as they may provoke us to a more diligent search and careful watchfullness over our waies Thus far mans judgement is regardable § 12. But 1. We must know how frail and erroneous and unconstant a thing man is and therefore not be too high in our expectations from man We must suppose that men will mistake us and wrong us and slander us through ignorance passion prejudice or self-interest And when this befals us we must not account it strange and unexpected § 13. 2. We must consider how far the enmity that is in lapsed man to holiness and the ignorance 1 Pet. 4 1â— 13 c. 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Acts â—â— â—2 Acts 24 5 6. Mat. 5. 10. â—â— 1â— prejudice and passion of the ungodly will carry them to despise and scorn and slander all such as seriously and zealously serve God and cross them in their carnal interest And therefore if for the sake of Christ and righteousness we are accounted as the scorn and off-scouring of all things and as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people and such as are unworthy to live and have all manner of evil spoken of us falsly it must not seem strange or unexpected to us nor cast us down but we must bear it patiently yea and exceedingly rejoyce in hope of our reward in Heaven § 14. 3. Considering what remnants of pride and self-conceitedness remain in many that have true grace and how many Hypocrites are in the Church whose Religion consisteth in Opinions and their several modes of worship we must expect to be reproached and abused by such as in Opinions and Modes and Circumstances do differ from us and take us therefore as their adversaries A great deal of injustice sometime by slanders or reproach and sometimes by greater violence must be expected from contentious professors of the same Religion with our selves especially when the interest of their faction or cause requireth it and especially if we bring any truth among them which seemeth new to them or crosseth the opinions which are there in credit or would be Reformers of them in any thing that is amiss § 15. 4. No men must be Pleased by sin nor their favour preferred before the pleasing of God Mans favour as against God is to be despised and their displeasure made light of It doing our duty will displease them let them be displeased we can but pitty them § 16. 5. We must place none of our happiness in the favor or approbation of men but account it as to our selves to be a matter of no great moment neither worth any great care or endeavour to obtain it or grief for losing
Only by Rom 1â— 1â— Pride cometh contention Prov. 13. 10. He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife Prov. 28. 25. What is their wrath their scorns their railing and endeavouring to vilifie those that have offended them but the foam and vomit of their pride Proud haughty scorner is his name that dealeth in proud wrath Prov. 21. 24. § 68. Sign 17. A proud man is either an open or a secret boaster If he be ashamed to shew his Sign 17. Pride by â—pon bâ—â—â—â—ing then he learneth the skill of setting out himself and making known his excellencies in a closer and more handsome way His own commendations shall not seem the design of his speech but to come in upon the by or before he was aware as if he thought of something else or it shall seem necessary to some other end and a thing that he is unavoidably put upon as against his will Or he will take on him to conceal it but by a transparent veil as some proud women hide their beauties Or he will conjoyn the mention of some of his infirmities but they shall be such as he thinks no matter of disgrace but like proud womens beauty-spots to set out the better part which they are proud of But one way or other either by ostentation or insinuation his work is to make known all that tendeth to his honour and to see that his goodness and wisdom and greatness be not unknown or unobserved And all because he must have mens approbation the hypocrites reward He is as buried if he be unknown Proud and boasters are joyned together Rom. 1. 30. 2 Tim. 3. 2. Theudas the deceiver boasted himself to be some body Acts 5. 36. Simon Magus gave out that himself was some great one and the people all gave heed to him from the least to the greatest saying This man is the great power of God Acts 8. 9 10. Such love the praise of men more than the praise of God John 12. 43. But the humble hath learned another kind of language not affectedly but from the feeling of their hearts to cry out I am vile I am unworthy to be called a child My sins are more than the hairs of my head And he hateth their vanity that by unseasonable or immoderate commendations endeavour to stir him up to pride and so to bring him to be vile indeed by proclaiming him to be excellent Much more doth he abhor to praise himself having learned Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips He praiseth himself by Works and not by Words Prov. 31. 31. § 69. Sign 18. A proud man loveth honourable Names and Titles as the Pharisees to be called Sign 18. Rabbi Matth. 23. And yet they may have so much wit as to pretend that it is but to promote their service for the common good and not that they are so weak to care for empty names or else that they were forced to it by some bodies kindness without their seeking and against their wills § 70. Sign 19. Pride doth tickle the heart of fools with content and pleasure to hear themselves applauded Sign 19. or see themselves admired by the people or to hear that they have got a great reputation in the world or to be flockt after and cryed up and have many followers Herod loveth to hear in commendation of his Oration It is the voice of a God and not of a man It is a feast to the proud Acts 12. 22. to hear that men abroad do magnifie him or see that those about him do reverence and love and honour and idolize him Hence hath the Church been filled with busie Sect-masters even of those that seemed forwardest in Religion which was sadly prophesied of by Paul to the Ephesians Acts 20. 29 30. Two sorts of troublers under the name of Pastors pride hath in all Ages thrust upon the Church Devouring Wolves and dividing Sect-masters For I know this that after my departure shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them See also Rom. 16. 16 17. § 71. Sign 20. Pride maketh men censorious and uncharitable They extenuate other mens vertues Sign 20. and good works and suspect ungroundedly their sincerity A little thing serves to make them think or call a man an hypocrite Very few are honest or sincere or godly or humble or faithful or able or worthy in their eyes even among them that are so indeed or that they have cause to think so A slight conjecture or report seemeth enough to allow them to condemn or defame another They quickly see the Mote in a Brothers eye Their pride and fancy can create a thousand Hereticks or Schismaticks or hypocrites or ungodly ones that never were such but in the Court of their presumption Especially if they take men for their adversaries they can cast them into the most odious shape and make them any thing that the Devil will desire them But the humble are charitable to others as conscious of much infirmity in themselves which makes them need the tenderness of others They judge the best till they know the worst and censure not men until they have both evidence to prove it and a call to meddle with them having learned Matth. 7. 1 2 3 4. Iudge not that ye be not judged § 72. Sign 21. Pride causeth men to bate Reproof The proud are forward in finding faults in Sign 21. others but love not a plain Reprover of themselves Though it be a duty which God himself commandeth Lev. 19. 17. as an expression of love and contrary to hatred yet it will make a proud man to be your enemy Prov. 15. 12. A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him neither will he go unto the wise Prov. 9. 7 8. He that reproveth a scorner getteth himself shame and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot Reprove not a scorner lest be hate thee Rebuke a wise man and be will love thee It galleth their hearts and they take themselves to be injured and they will bear you a grudge for it as if you were their enemy If they valued or honoured you before you have lost them or angred them if you have told them of their faults If they love to hear a Preacher deal plainly with others they hate him when he dealeth so with them Herod will give away Iohns head when he hath first imprisoned him for telling him of his Sin though before he reverenced him and heard him gladly They can easily endure to be evil and do evil but not to hear of it As if a man that had the Leprosie loved the disease and yet hated him that telleth him that he hath it or would cure him of it This pride is the thing that hath made men so unprofitable to each other by
to quicken them which should be used when your minds grow dull or barren When your minds 19. All Ordinances and Means of Grace are empty and you cannot pump up plentiful matter for holy thoughts the reading of a seasonable book or conference with a full experienced Christian will furnish you with matter so will the hearing of a profitable Sermon and sometime prayer will do more than meditation And weak-headed persons of small knowledge and shallow memories must fetch the matter of their meditations thus more frequently from reading and conference than others need to do As they can hold but a little at a time so they must go the ofter As he that goeth to the Water with a Spoon or a Dish must go ofter than they that go with a more capacious vessel Others can carry a store-house of meditation still about them but persons of very small knowledge and memory must have their meditations fed by others as infants by the spoon Therefore a little and often is the best way both for their Reading or hearing and for their holy thoughts How great a mercy is it that weak Christians have such store of helps that when their heads are empty they have books and friends that are not empty from whence they may fetch help as they want it and that their hearts are not empty of the Love of God which enclineth them to do more than their parts enable them to do § 20. Direct 20. If all these do not sufficiently furnish your meditations look through the world Direct 20. and see what a multitude of miserable souls do call for your compassion and daily prayers for their relief 20. The miserable sinful world Think on the many nations that lie in the darkness of Idolatry and Infidelity It is not past the sixth part of the world that are Christians of any sort The other five parts are Heathens and Mahometans and some few Jews And of this sixth part it s but a small part that are Reformed from Popery and such corruptions as the Eastern and Southern Christians also are too much defiled with And in the Reformed Churches how common is profaneness and worldliness and how few are acquainted with the power of Godliness What abundance of ignorant and ungodly persons be there who hate the power and practice of that Religion which they profess themselves they hope to be saved by as if they hoped to be saved for hating persecuting and disobeying it And among those that seem more serious and obedient how many are hypocrites And how many are possest with pride and self-conceitedness which breaketh forth into unruliness contentions and uncharitableness factions and divisions in the Church How many Christians are ignorant passionate weak unprofitable and too many scandalous And how few are judicious prudent heavenly charitable peaceable humble meek laborious and fruitful who set themselves wholly to be good and to do good And of these few how few are there that are not exercised under heavy afflictions from God or cruel persecutions from ungodly men What tyranny is exercised by the Turk without and the Pope within upon the sincerest followers of Christ. Set all this together and tell me whether thy compassionate Thoughts or thy Prayers do need to go out for want of fewel or matter to feed upon from day to day Tit. 3. Directions how to make good Thoughts effectual or General Directions for Meditation HEre some Directions are preparatory and some about the Work it self § 1. Direct 1. Be sure that Reason maintain its authority in the command and government of Direct 1. your thoughts and that they be not left masterless to fancy and passion and objects to carry them which way they please Diseased melancholy and crazed persons have almost no power over their own Thoughts They cannot command them to what they would have them exercised about nor call them off from any thing that they run out upon but they are like an unruly horse that hath a weak rider or hath cast the rider or like a masterless dog that will not go or come at your command Whereas our Thoughts should be at the direction of our Reason and the command of the will to go and come off as soon as they are bid As you see a student can rule his Thoughts all day he can appoint them what they shall meditate on and in what order and how long So can a Lawyer a Physicion and all sorts of men about the matters of their arts and callings And so it should be with a Christian about the matters of his soul All Rules of Direction are to little purpose with them whose Reason hath lost its power in governing their thoughts If I tell a man that is deeply melancholy Thus and thus you must order your thoughts He will tell me that he cannot His thoughts are not in his power If you would give never so much he is not able to forbear thinking of that which is his disturbance nor to command his thoughts to that which you direct him nor to think but as he doth even as his disease and trouble moveth him And what good will precepts do to such Grace and doctrine and exhortation work by Reason and the commanding will If a holy person could manage his practical heart-raising meditations but as orderly and constantly and easily as a carnal covetous Preacher can manage his thoughts in studying the same things for carnal ends to make a gain of them or to win applause how happily would our work go on And is it not sad to think that carnal ends should do so much more than spiritual about the same things § 2. Direct 2. Carefully avoid the disease of melancholy for that dethroneth Reason and disableth it Direct 2. to rule the thoughts Distraction wholly disableth but melancholy disableth only in part according to the measure of its prevalencie and therefore leaveth some room for advice § 3. Direct 3. Take heed of sloth and negligence of the will whereby the directions of Reason will be Direct 3. unexecuted for want of Resolution and command and so every temptation will carry away the thoughts A lazy coachman will let the horses go which way they list because he will not strive with them and will break his neck to save his labour If when you feel unclean or worldly thoughts invade your minds you will not give your wills the allarm and rise up against them and Resolutely command them out you will be like a lazy person that lieth in bed while he seeth Thieves robbing his house and will let all go rather than he will rise and make resistance A sign that he hath no great riches to lose or else he would stir for it And if you see your duty on what your Thoughts should be employed and will not resolutely call them up and command them to their work you will be like a sluggard that will let all his servants lie in bed as
the Holy Ghost to lead men by obedience to felicity Behold it with reverence as a Letter or Message sent from Heaven and as a thing of grand importance to your souls When you meditate of any Grace think on it as a part of the Image of God implanted and actuated by the Holy Ghost to advance the soul into communion with God and prepare it for him When you meditate on any Duty remember who commandeth it and whom you are chiefly to respect in your obedience and what will be the end of obeying or disobeying When you meditate on any sin remember that it is the defacing or privation of Gods image and the rebell that riseth up against him in all his attributes to depose him from the Government of the soul and of the world and foresee the End to which it tendeth Take in God if you would feel Life and Power in all that you meditate on § 21. Direct 7. Let your ordinary Meditations be on the Great and Necessary things and think Direct 7. less frequently on the less Necessary matters Meditation is but a means to a further end It is to work some good upon the soul Use therefore those subjects which are most powerful and fit to work it Great truths will do great works upon the heart They are usually the surest and most past controversie and doubt There is more weight and substance and power in one Article of the Creed or one Petition in the Lords Prayer or one Commandment in the Decalogue to benefit the soul than in abundance of the controverted opinions which men have troubled themselves and others with in all ages As one purse of Gold will buy more than a great quantity of Farthings Meditating on Great and weighty truths makes Great and weighty Christians And meditating inordinately on light and controverted opinions makes light opinionative contentious professors Little things may have their time and place but it must be but little time and the last place except when God maketh any little thing to be the matter of our lawful calling and employment as all the common matters of the world are little And then they may have a larger proportion of our time though still they must have the lowest place in our estimation and in our hearts § 22. Direct 8. When ever you are called to meditate on any smaller truth or thing see that you Direct 8. take it not as separated from the greater but still behold it as connexed to them and planted and growing in them and receiving their life and beauty from them so that you may still preserve the life and interest of the greatest matters in your hearts and may not mortifie the least and turn it into a deceit or idol We are to climb upwards and not to descend downwards and therefore we begin at the body of the Tree and so pass up to the few and greatest boughs and thence to the smaller numerous branches which as they are hard to be discerned numbred and remembred so are they not all strong enough to bear us but are fitted rather to be looked on than trodden and rested on But if you take them not as growing from the greater boughs but cut them off they lose their life and beauty and fruitfulness If all the Controversies in the Church had been managed with due honour and preservation of Holiness Charity Unity Peace and greater truths and if all the circumstantials in Religion had been ordered with a salvo and due regard and just subsâ—rviency to the power and spirituality of holy Worship the Christian world would have had more Life and strength and fruitfulness and less imagery unholy ludicrous complement and hypocrisie § 23. Direct 9. Let the end and order of your meditations be first for the setling of your judgements Direct 9. and next for the resalving and setling of your wills and thirdly for the reforming and bettering of your lives and but in the fourth place after all these for the raising of your holy passions or lively feeling which must have but its proper room and place But indeed where some of these are done already they may be supposed and we may proceed to that which is yet to do As if you know what is sin and duty but do it not your meditation must be not to make you know what you knew not but first to consider well of what you know and set the powerful truth before you and then labour hereby to bring your wills to a fixed Resolution of obedience But if it be a Truth whose principal use is on the Will and Affections as to draw up the heart to the Love of God by the meditating on his attractive excellencies then the most pains must there be taken Of which see Chap. 3. Direct 11. § 24. Direct 10. Turn your cogitations often into soliloquies methodically and earnestly preaching Direct 10. to your own hearts as you would do on that subject to others if it were to save their souls As this will keep you in order from rambling and running out and will also find you continual matter Of this see the third part of my Saints Rest more fully For method is a wonderful help both to invention memory and delight so it will bring things soonest to your affections An earnest pleading of convincing reasons with our own Hearts is a powerful way to make the fire burn and to kindle desire fear love hatred repentings shame sorrow joy resolution or any good effect Convictions upbraidings expostulations reprehensions and self-perswasions may be very powerful when a dull way of bare thinking is but like a dull way of preaching without any lively application which little stirs the hearers Learn purposely of the liveliest Books you read and of the best and liveliest Preachers you hear to preach to your hearts and use it orderly and you will find it a most powerful way of meditating § 25. Direct 11. Turn your meditations often into ejaculatory prayers and addresses unto God For Direct 11. that will keep you reverent serious and awake and make all the more powerful because the more Divine When you meditate on sin turn sometimes to God by penitent lamentation and say Lord what a wretch and rebell was I to entertain such an enemy of thine into my heart and for nothing to offend thee and violate thy Laws O pardon O cleanse me O strengthen me Conquer and â—ast out this odious enemy of thee and me So when you are seeking to excite or exercise any grace send up a fervent request to God to shew his Love and power upon thy dead and sluggish heart and to be the principal agent in a work which is so much his own Prayer is a most holy duty in which the soul hath so nearly to do with God that if there be any holy seriousness in the heart it will be thus excited A dull and wandring mind will bear some reverence to God and therefore
to needless recreations and from the deadly plague of youthful lusts when your daily labour is a greater pleasure to you § 21. Direct 10. Get some judicious man to draw you up the titles of a threefold Common-place-Book Direct 10. One part for definitions distinctions axioms and necessary doctrines Another part for what is useful for ornament and oratory And another for References as a common Index to all the Books of that Science which you read For memory will not serve for all § 22. Ordinarily Students have not judgement enough to form their own Common-place-Books till they are old in Studies and have read most of the authors which they would remember And therefore the young must here have a judicious helper And when they have done injudiciousness will be apt to fill it with less necessary things and to make an unmeet choice of matter if they have not care and an instructer § 23. Direct 11. Highly esteem of a just Method in Divinity and in all your studies and labour to Direct 11. get an accurate Scheme or Skeleton where at once you may see every part in its proper place But remember Since the writing of this I have begun a Methodus Theologiae that if it be not sound it will be a snare and one error in your Scheme or Method will be apt to introduce abundance more § 24. It s a poor and pitiful kind of knowledge to know many loose parcels and broken members of truth without knowing the whole or the place and relation which they have to the rest To know letters and not syllables or syllables and not words or words and not sentences or sentences and not the scope of the discourse are all but an unprofitable knowledge He knoweth no Science rightly that hath not anatomized it and carryeth not a true Scheme or Method of it in his mind But among the many that are extant to commend any one to you which I most esteem or take to be without error is more than I dare do § 25. Direct 12. Still keep the primitive fundamental verities in your mind and see every other Direct 12. truth which you learn as springing out of them and receiving their life and nourishment from them And Read well Vincentius Lirinencâ—sis still keep in your minds a clear distinction between the Truths of several Degrees both of Necessity and Certainty alwayes reducing the less Necessary to the more Necessary and the less certain to the more certain and not contrarily § 26. If God had made all points of faith or Scripture revelation of equal necessity our Baptism would not only have mentioned our Belief in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost nor should we ever have seen the antient Creed nor the ten Commandments And if all points were of equall Evidence and plainness and certainty to us we should not have some so much controverted above others Some things in Scripture are hard to be understood but not all things 2 Pet. 3. 16. To pretend that any Truth is more necessary than it is doth tend to uncharitableness and contention And to say that any is less necessary than it is doth tend to the neglect of it and to the danger of souls To pretend any point to be more plain and certain than it is doth but shew our pride and ignorance But to set up uncertain and unnecessary points and make a Religion of them and reduce things certain or necessary to them this is the method of turbulent Hereticks § 27. Direct 13. Take nothing as universally Necessary in Religion which was not so taken in the Direct 13. dayes of the Apostles and Primitive Church and take that for the safest way to Heaven which the Apostles went who certainly are there value the Apostolical purity simplicity charity and unity and follow not them that by being wise and pious overmuch corrupt our sacred pattern by their additions and fill the Church with uncharitableness and strife § 28. If it were not a thing too evident that Dominion and Riches go for Religion with them and gain for Godliness and honour and money instead of argument it would be a most stupendious wonder that so many learned men should be found among Christians in the world to hinder the peace and unity of the Church as do it vehemently and implacably in the Church of Rome when so easie a thing and so reasonable would unite almost all the Christian world as is the requiring no more as necessary to our Union than what was made necessary in the dayes of the Apostles and the obtruding nothing as necessary to salvation which the Apostles and primitive Church were saved without This easie reasonable thing which no man hath any thing of seeming sense and weight to speak against would end all the ruinating differences among Christians § 29. Direct 14. Be desirous to know all that God would have you know and be willing to be ignorant Direct 14. of all that God would have you ignorant of and pry not into unrevealed things and much less make them the matter of any uncharitable strife § 30. Abundance of contentious Volumes between the Dominicans and Jesuites and many others are stuft with bold enquiries wranglings or determinations of unsearchable mysteries utterly unknown to those that voluminously debate them and never revealed in the Word or Works of God Keep off with reverence from concealed mysteries Talk not as boldly of the Divine influx and the priority posteriority dependance or reason of Gods Decrees as if you were talking of your common affairs Come with great reverence when you are called of God to search into those high and holy truths which he hath revealed But pretend not to know that which is not to be known For you will but discover your ignorance and arrogance and know never the more when you have doted about Questions never so long § 31. Direct 15. Avoid both extreams of them that study no more but to know what others have Direct 15. written and held before them and of them that little regard the discoveries of others Learn all of your Teachers and Authors that they can teach you but make all your own and see things in their proper evidence and improve their discoveries by the utmost of your diligence abhorring a proud desire of singularity or to seem wiser than you are § 32. Most Students through slothfulness look no further for knowledge than into their Books and their learning lyeth but in knowing what others have written or said or held before them especially where the least differing from the judgement of the party which is uppermost or in reputation doth tend to hazzard a mans honour or preferments there men think it dangerous to seem to know more than is commonly known and therefore think it needless to study to know it Men are backward to take much pains to know that which tendeth to their ruine to be known but doth
now abroad in the world Of the millions of Heathens and Mahometanes and other strangers or enemies to Christ Of the obstinate Jews of the dark corrupted lamentable state of the Greek Armenian Ethiopian and Roman Churches where Religion is so wofully obscured and dishonoured by ignorance error superstition and prophaneness Of the Papal tyranny and usurpation and of the divided state of all the Churches and the prophaness and persecution and uncharitableness and contentions and mutual reproaches and revilings which make havock for the Devil among the members of Christ. Tit. 5. Directions against sinful Hopes HOPE is nothing but a Desirous expectation Therefore the Directions given before against sinful Dâ—â—h any man doubt that if there were taken out of mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginations c. but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things full of melancholy and indisposition and uncomfortable to themselves Lord Bacoâ— Essay of Lâ—es Love and Desire may suffice also against sinful Hopes save only for the expecting part Hope is sinful 1. When it is placed ultimately upon a forbidden object as to Hope for some evil to your selves which you mistakingly think is good To hope for felicity in the creature or to hope for more from it than it can afford you To hope for the hurt of other men for the ruine of your enemies for the hindrance of the Gospel and injury to the Church of Christ. 2. When you hope for a Good thing by evil means as to Hope to please God or to come to Heaven by persecuting his servants or by ignorance or superstition or schism or Heresie or any sin 3. To Hope ungroundedly for that from God which he never promised 4. To Hope deceitfully for that from God which he hath declared he will never give All these are sinful Hopes But it is not these last that I shall here say much to because I have said so much already of them in many other writings § 2. Direct 1. Hope for nothing from God against faith or without faith that is for nothing Direct 1. which he hath said he will not give nor for any thing which he hath not promised to give or given you some reason to expect To hope for that which God hath told us he will not give or that which is against the Holiness and Iustice of God to give this is but to Hope that God will prove a lyer or unholy or unjust which are wicked and blaspheaming hopes Such are the Hâ—pes which abundance of ignorant and ungodly persons have who hope to be saved without regeneration and without true Holiness of heart or life and hope to be saved in their willful impenitence and beloved sins who hope that God forgiveth them those sins which they hate not nor will not be perswaded to forsake And hope that the saying over some words of prayer or doing something which they call a good work shall save them though they have not the spirit of Christ Or that hope to be saved though they are unsanctified because they are not so bad as some others and live not in any notorious disgraceful sin All these believe the Devil who tells them that an unholy person may be saved and believe that the Gospel is false which saith without Holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. and they Hope that God will prove unholy unjust and false to save them and yet this they call a Hoping in God Hope for that which God hath promised and spare not but not for that which he hath said he will not do yea protested cannot be Iohn 3. 3 5. § 3. Direct 2. When thou Hopest for any evil to others or thy self remember what a monstrous thing Direct 2. it is to make evil the object of thy Hope and how those Hopes are but thy hastning unto chosen misery and contradict themselves For thou Hopest for it as Good and to be greedy for evil on supposition that its good doth shew thy folly that wilt try no better the objects of thy Hopes Like a sick man that longs and hopeth for that which if he take it will be his death Thus sinners hope for the poysoned bait § 4. Direct 3. Understand how much of the root of worldliness consisteth in your worldly Hopes Direct 3. Poor worldlings have little in possession to delight in but they keep up a Hope of more within them Many a covetous or ambitious wretch that never reacheth that which he desireth yet liveth upon the Hopes of it And Hope is it that setteth and keepeth men at work in the service of the world the flesh and the Devil as Divine Hope doth set and keep men at work for Heaven for their souls and for Jesus Christ. And many an Hypocrite that loseth much upon the account of his Religion yet sheweth his rottenness by keeping up his worldly hopes and going no further than will stand with those § 5. Direct 4. Hath not the world deceived all that have hoped in it unto this day Consider what is Direct 4. become of them and of their Hopes What hath it done for them and where hath it left them And wilt thou place thy Hopes in that which hath deceived so many generations of men already § 6. Direct 5. Remember that thy worldly Hopes are a sin so fully condemned by natural demonstration Direct 5. that thou art utterly left without excuse Thou art certain before-hand that thou must die Thou knowest how vain the world will be then to thee and how little it can do for thee And yet art thou Hoping for more of the world § 7. Direct 6. Consider that the world declareth its vanity in the very Hopes of worldlings In that it Direct 6. is still drawing them by Hopes and never giveth them satisfaction and content Almost all the life of a worldlings pleasure is in his Hopes The very thing which he hopeth for doth not prove so sweet to him in the possession as it was in his hopes A Hoping and Hoping still for that which they never shall attain is the worldlings life § 8. Direct 7. O turn your souls to those blessed Hopes of life eternal which are sent you from Heaven Direct 7. by Iesus Christ and set before you in the holy Scriptures and proclaimed to you by the messengers of grace Doth God offer you sure well-grounded hopes of living for ever in his Ioy and Glory And do you neglect them and lie hoping for that felicity in the world which cannot be attained and which will give no content when you have attained it This is more foolish than to toyl and impoverish your selves in Hope to find the Philosophers stone and refuse a Kingdom freely offered Tit. 6. Directions against sinful Hatred Aversation or Backwardness towards Of Hatred to men I shall speak anon God § 1. THe hatred to God and backwardness to his service which is
that toucheth not the heart neither Is it loss of children or friends or is it pain and sickness I confess these are sore but yet they do not touch the heart If they come thither it is your doing and though thither they should come moderately if they are immoderate it is your own sinful doing It is you that grieve and make the heart ake God and man did but make the flesh ake If others hurt your bodys will you therefore vex your minds Will you pierce through your hearts because they touch your name or goods If so remember which part of your sorrow is of their making and which is of your own And can you for shame go beg of Gâ—d or man to ease the grief which you your selves are causing and willfully continue it while you pray against it And why lament you that which you cause and choose It is a shame to be willfully your own tormentâ—r◠§ 20. Direct 14. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of Reason that is Direct 14. all fâ—â—bleness and câ—wardize of mind and a melancholy a piâ—vish passionate disposition and labour to keep up the authâ—rity of Reason and to keep all your passions subject to your wills which must be done by Christian faith and fortitude If you come once to that childish or distracted pass as to grieve and say I cannot help it I know it is sinful and immoderate but I cannot choose if you say true you are out of the reach of counsel advice or comfort You are not to be preacht to nor talkt to nor to be written for we do not write Directions to teach men how to touch the Stars or explain the Asperites or inequalities of the Moon or the Opacous parts of Saturn or to govern the Orbs or rule the Chariot of the Sun If it be become a natural impossibility to you Doctrine can give you no remedy But if the impossibility be but Moral in the weakness of your Reason and want of consideration it may by Doctrine Consideration and Resolution be overcome You can do more if you will than you think you can How come you to lose the command of your Passions Did not God make you a rational creature that hath an understanding and will to rule all Passions How come you to have lost the Ruling power of Reason and will You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lâ—st the use of your Reason And is it not a principal use of it to Rule the passions and all other inferior subject powers You say you cannot choose but grieve But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire then you could choose You could rejoyce if one could restore you that Child that Friend that Estate which you have lost But God and Christ and Heaven it seems are not enough to cure you if you must have but theâ— you cannot choose but grieve And what hearts have you then that are thus affected Should not those hearts be rather grieved for God will sometime make you see that you had more power than you used § 21. Direct 15. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow that you may feel what reason you have Direct 15. to avoid it While you know not what hurt is in it you will be the more remiss in your resisting it I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits § 22. 1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind This you know by feeling 2. It is a The ill effects of sinful grieâ— destroyer of bodily health and life For worldly sorrow worketh death 2 Cor. 7. 10. Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the the bones 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies and so causeth us to undervalue them and consequently to be unthankful for them and not to improve them 4. It destroyeth the sense of the Love of God and lamentably undisposeth the soul to Love them And therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that Even Anaâ—agoâ—as a Philosopher could say â—o one that asked him Nullâ—m tibi paâ—riae â—ura est Mihi quidem pâ—â—â—â—iae cura est quidem summa digitum 〈…〉 lum intendâ—ns Laâ—rt p 85. one effect 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost and unfitteth us to obey that command of God Rejoyce continually 6. It contradicteth a Heavenly mind and conversation and hindereth us from all foreâ—asts of the everlasting joys 7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of Praise Who can ascend in the Praises of God while Grief doth oppress and captivate the soul 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all Gods Ordinances Hearing Reading Prayer Sacraments we may force our selves to use them but shall have no delight in them 9. It hindreth the exercise of Faith and raiseth distrust and sinful doubts and fears within us 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at God and man 11. It maketh us impatient pievish froward angry and hard to be pleased 12. It weakneth the soul to all that 's good and destroyeth its fortitude and strength For it is the Ioy of the Lord that is our strength Neh. 8. 10. 13. It hindreth us in the duties of our callings who can do them as they should be done under the clog of a disquiet mind 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others and hindreth us from doing the good we might when we should be instructing exhorting and praying for poor sinners or minding the Church of God we are all taken up at home about our own afflictions 16. It maketh us a stumbling block and scandal to the ungodly and hindreth their conversiion while the Devil setteth us before the Church doors to keep away the ungodly from a holy life as men set scar-crows in their fields and gardens to frighten away the birds 17. It dishonoureth Religion by making men believe that it is a melancholy vexatious self-tormenting life 18. It obscureth the Glory of the Gospel and crosseth the work of Christ his Spirit and Ministers who all come upon a message of Great joy to all Nations and proclaim Glad tidings to the worst of sinners much more to the sons of God and heirs of life 19. It misrepresenteth God himself as if we would perswade men that he is a hard and cruel master that none can please though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace and that it is worse with us since we served him than before and that he delighteth in our grief and misery and is against our peace and joy and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of God when those that profess to fear and seek him do live in such immoderate
he shall serve me He that worketh Deceit shall not dwell within my House He that telleth lyes shall not tarry in my sight Prov. 3. 33. The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the Iust. LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. To all that fear God in the Burrough and Parish of Kederminster in Worcestershire Dear Friends YOU are the Only People that ever I took a special Pastoral Charge of And Gods blessing and your Obedience to his Word do make the remembrance of my Labours and Converse with you to be sweet It was neither by Your Will or Mine that we have been this twelve years separated nor that we yet continue so I thank our most Gracious God who maugre all the Serpents Malice hath Inwardly and Outwardly so well provided for you above most others as that I hope you will be no losers by any thing which hath yet befallen you That I have hitherto survived so many of my departed Friends both with you and elsewhere after all that you have known is my own wonder as well as yours And what I have been doing in this time of our separation I have formerly told you in part by some other Writings and now tell you more by this which was written about five or six years ago though it found not passage into the world till now I live not yet Idle But whether this be the way of my chiefest service to the Church of God in my present case some distant Censurers have questioned If it be not my Ignorance of my duty and of what will be most useful to others is the cause and not my Love of Ease or my obeying Man rather than God I judge that my chief duty which I think is likest to do most good I am glad that once more before I dye I have opportunity to speak to you at this distance and to perswade you to and Direct you in that Family Holiness and Righteousness which hath been so much of your Comfort and Honour and will be so while you faithfully continue it O how happy a state is it to have God dwell in your Families by his Love and Blessing and Rule them by his Word and Spirit and Protect them by his Power and Delight in them and they in Him as his Churches preparing for the Coelestial Delights O how much of the Interest of true Religion must be kept up in the world by the Holiness and Diligence of Christian Families How happy a supply doth it afford where there are sad defects in the Teaching Holiness and Discipline of the Churches O that the Rulers of Families who are silenced by no others did not silence themselves from that Instructing and Prayer which is their work I should be sorry that this Directory is so Voluminous that few of you can buy it but that more Ends than One in such works must be intended If any of you which God forbid shall shew by an ungodly life that you have forgotten the Doctrine which was taught you or if more yet shall traduce the Doctrine of your once unworthy Teacher Posterity shall here see what it was in this Record which may remain and preach when I am yet more silenced in the dust The Lord whom we have served though with lamentable defects and in whom though alas too weakly we have trusted preserve us in the Life of Faith Hope and Love in Sincerity Zeal and patient Constancy to the Glorious Life where we hope to behold in Perfect Love without the fear of death or separation our most Blessed Head and God for ever Amen Totteridge near Barnet Feb. 10. 1671 2. Your Servant in Willingness Richard Baxter A Christian Directory TOM II. Christian Oeconomicks CHAP. I. Directions about Marriage for Choice and Contract AS the Persons of Christians in their privatest capacities are Holy as being Dedicated and separated unto God so also must their Families be HOLINESS TO THE LORD must be as it were written on their Doors and on their Relations their Possessions and Affairs To which it is requisite 1. That there be a Holy Constitution of their Families 2. And a holy Government of them and discharge of the several duties of the Members of the Family To the right constituting of a Family belongeth 1. The right contracting of Marriage and 2. The right choice and contract betwixt Masters and their Servants For the first § 2. Direct 1. Take heed that neither lust nor rashness do thrust you into a marryed condition before Direct 1. you see such Reasons to invite you to it as may assure you of the Call and approbation of God For 1. It is God that you must serve in your Marryed state and therefore it is meet that you take his counsel before you rush upon it For he knoweth best himself what belongeth to his service 2. And it is God that you must still depend upon for the blessing and comforts of your relation And therefore there is very great reason that you take his advice and consent as the chief things requisite to the match If the Consent of Parents be necessary much more is the Consent of God § 3. Quest. But how shall a man know whether God call him to Marriage or consent unto it Hath Quest. he not here left all men to their liberties as in a thing indifferent Answ. God hath not made any Universal Law commanding or forbidding Marriage but in this Answ. Whether Marriage be indifferent regard hath left it indifferent to mankind yet not allowing all to marry for undoubtedly to some it is unlawful But he hath by other General Laws or Rules directed men to know in what cases it is lawful and in what cases it is a sin As every man is bound to choose that condition in which he may serve God with the best advantages and which tendeth most to his spiritual welfare and increase in Holiness Now there is nothing in Marriage it self which maketh it commonly inconsistent with these benefits and the fulfilling of these Laws And therefore it is said that He that Marrieth doth well that is he doth that which of it self is not unlawful and which to some is the 1 Cor 7. 7 3◠most eligible state of life But there is something in a single life which maketh it especially to Preachers and persecuted Christians to be more usually the most advantagious state of life to these Ends of Christianity And therefore it is said that He that marrieth not doth better And yet to individual persons it is hard to imagine how it can choose but be either a duty or a sin at least except in some unusual cases For it is a thing of so great moment as to the ordering of our hearts and lives that it is hard to imagine that it should ever be indifferent as a means to our main end but
Rich men may want great sums or larger provisions which the poor can easily be without And their condition lifting them up to greater pride doth torment them with greater discontents How few in all the world that have families are content with their estates § 24. 4. Hereupon a married life containeth far more temptations to worldliness or covetousness than a single state doth For when you think you need more you will desire more And when you find all too little to satisfie those that you provide for you will measure your estate by their desires and be apt to think that you have never enough Birds and Beasts that have young ones to provide for are most hungry and rapacious You have so many now to scrape for that you will think you are still in want It is not only till Death that you must now lay up but you must provide for children that survive you And while you take them to be as your selves you have two Generations now to make provisions for And most men are as Covetous for their posterity as if it were for themselves § 25. 5. And hereupon you are hindred from works of Charity to others Wife and Children are the devouring gulf that swalloweth all If you had but your selves to provide for a little would serve And you could deny your own desires of unnecessary things and so might have plentiful provision for good works But by that time Wife and Children are provided for and all their importunate desires satisfied there is nothing considerable left for pious or charitable uses Lamentable experience proclaimeth this § 26. 6. And hereby it appeareth how much a married state doth ordinarily hinder men from honouring their profession It is their vows of single life that hath occasioned the Papists to do so many works of publick charity as is boasted of for the honour of their Sect For when they have no Children to bequeath it to and cannot keep it themselves it is easie for them to leave it to such uses as will pacifie their Consciences most and advance their names And if it should prove as good a work and as acceptable to God to educate your own Children piously for his service as to relieve the children of the poor yet is it not so much regarded in the world nor bringeth so much honour to Religion One hundred pound given to the poor shall more advance the repution of your liberality and virtue than a thousand pound given to your own children though it be with as pious an end to train them up for the service of the Church And though this is inconsiderable as your own honour is concerned in it yet it is considerable as the honour of Religion and the good of souls is concerned in it § 27. 7. And it is no small patience which the natural imbecility of the female sex requireth you to prepare Except it be very few that are patient and manlike women are commonly of potenâ— fantasies and tender passionate impatient spirits easily cast into anger or jealousie or discontent and of weak understandings and therefore unable to reform themselves They are betwixt a man and a child Some few have more of the man and many have more of the child but most are but in a middle state Weakness naturally inclineth persons to be froward and hard to please as we see in children old people and sick persons They are like a sore distempered body You can scarce touch them but you hurt them With too many you can scarce tell how to speak or look but you displease them If you should be very well verst in the art of pleasing and set your selves to it with all your care as if you made it your very business and had little else to do yet it would put you hard to it to please some weak impatient persons if not quite surpass your ability and skill And the more you love them the more grievous it will be to see them still in discontents aweary of their condition and to hear the clamorous expressions of their disquiet minds Nay the very multitude of words that very many are addicted to doth make some mens lives a continual burden to them Mark what the Scripture saith Prov. 21. 9. It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top than with a brawling woman in a wide house Vers. 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman So 25. vers 24. And Prov. 27. 15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike Eccles. 7. 28. One man among a thousand have I found but a woman among all those have I not found § 28. 8. And there is such a meeting of faults and imperfections on both sides that maketh it much the harder to bear the infirmities of others aright If one party only were froward and impatient the stedfastness of the other might make it the more tolerable But we are all sick in some measure of the same disease And when weakness meeteth with weakness and pride with pride and passion with passion it exasperateth the disease and doubleth the suffering And our corruption is such that though our intent be to help one another in our duties yet we are apter far to stir up one anothers distempers § 79. 9. The business care and trouble of a married life is a great temptation to call down our thoughts from God and to divert them from the one thing necessary Luk. 10. 42. and to distract the mind and make it indisposed to holy duty and to serve God with a divided heart as if we served him not How hard is it to pray or meditate with any serious fervency when you come out of a crowd of cares and businesses Hear what St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 7. 7 8. For I would that all men were as I my self I say to the unmarried and the widows It is good for them if they abide even as I. 26 27 28. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress that it is good fâ—r a man so to be such shall have trouble in the flesh 32 33. But I would have you be without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord But he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife 34 35. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in Spirit but she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband And this I speak for your own profit not that I may cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction 37 38. He that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his
and breed up children for the devil Their natural corruption is advantage enough to Satan to engage them to himself and use them for his service But when Parents shall also take the Devils part and teach their children by precepts or example how to serve him and shall estrange them from God and a holy life and fill their minds with false conceits and prejudice against the means of their salvation as if they had sold their children to the Devil no wonder then if they have a black posterity that are trained up to be heirs of Hell He that will train up children for God must begin betimes before sensitive objects take too deep possession of their hearts and custom increase the pravity of their nature Original sin is like the arched Indian Fig-tree whose branches turning downwards and taking root do all become as trees themselves The acts which proceed from this habitual viciousness do turn again into vicious habits And thus sinful nature doth by its fruits increase it self And when other things consume themselves by breeding all that sin breedeth is added to it self and its breeding is its feeding and every act doth confirm the habit And therefore no means in all the world doth more effectually tend to the happiness of souls than wise and holy education This dealeth with sin before it hath taken the deepest root and boweth nature while it 's but a twig It preventeth the increase of natural pravity and keepeth out those deceits corrupt opinions and carnal fantasies and lusts which else would be serviceable to sin and Satan ever after It delivereth up the heart to Christ betime or at least doth bring him a Disciple to his School to learn the way to life eternal and to spend those years in acquainting himself with the ways of God which others spend in growing worse and in learning that which must be again unlearned and in fortifying Satans garrison in their hearts and defending it against Christ and his saving grace But of this more anon § 5. Motive 5. A holy well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed Church If Masters of families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to Motive 5 do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would be unspeakably more easie and delightful It would do one good to Preach to such an auditory and to Catechise them and instruct them and examine them and watch over them who are prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the doctrine which they hear To lay such polished stones in the building is an easie and delightful work How teachable and tractable will such be And how prosperously will the labours of their Pastors be laid out upon them And how comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons And how pure and comfortable will their communion be But if the Churches be sties of unclean beasts if they are made up of ignorant and ungodly persons that savour nothing but the things of the flesh and use to worship they know not what we may thank ill-governed families for all this It is long of them that Ministers preach as to idiots or barbarians that cannot understand them and that they must be always feeding their auditors with milk and teaching them the principles and Catechizing them in the Church which should have been done at home Yea it is long of them that there are so many Wolves and Swine among the Sheep of Christ and that holy things are administred to the enemies of holiness and the godly live in communion with the haters of God and Godliness and that the Christian Religion is dishonoured before the heathen world by the worse-than-heathenish lives of the Professors and the pollutions of the Churches do hinder the conversion of the unbelieving world whilest they that can judge of our Religion no way but by the people that profess it do judge of it by the lives of them that are in heart the enemies of it when the haters of Christianity and Godliness are the Christians by whose conversations the Infidel world must judge of Christianity you may easily conjecture what judgement they are like to make Thus Pastors are discouraged the Churches defiled Religion disgraced and Infidels hardned through the impious disorder and negligence of families What Universities were we like to have if all the Grammar-Schools should neglect their duties and send up their scholars untaught as they received them and if all Tutors must teach their pupils first to spell and read Even such Churches we are like to have when every Pastor must first do the work which all the Masters of families should have done and the part of many score or hundreds or thousands must be performed by one § 6. Motive 6. Well-governed Families tend to make a happy State and Commonwealth A good Motive 6. education is the first and greatest work to make good Magistrates and good Subjects because it tends to make good men Though a good man may be a bad Magistrate yet a bad man cannot be a very good Magistrate The ignorance or worldliness or sensuality or enmity to godliness which grew up with them in their youth will shew it self in all the places and relations that ever they shall come into When an ungodly family hath once confirmed them in wickedness they will do wickedly in every state of life when a perfidious Parent hath betrayed his Children into the power and service of the Devil they will serve him in all relations and conditions This is the School from whence come all the injustice and cruelties and persecutions and impieties of Magistrates and all the murmurings and rebellions of subjects This is the soil and seminary where the seed of the Devil is first sown and where he nurseth up the plants of Covetousness and Pride and Ambition and Revenge Malignity and Sensuality till he transplant them for his service into several Offices in Church and State and into all places of inferiority where they may disperse their venome and resist all that is good and contend for the interest of the flesh and Hell against the interest of the Spirit and of Christ. But O what a blessing to the world would they be that shall come prepared by a holy education to places of Government and Subjection And how happy is that Land that is ruled by such superiours and consisteth of such prepared subjects as have first learnt to be subject to God and to their Parents § 7. Motive 7. If the Governours of Families did faithfully perform their duties it would be a Motive 7. great supply as to any defects in the Pastors part and a singular means to propagate and preserve Religion in times of publick negligence or persecution Therefore Christian Families are called Churches because they consist of holy persons that worship God and learn and love and obey his word If you lived among
the Enemies of Religion that forbad Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel and forbad Gods servants to meet in Church-assemblies for his Worship the support of Religion and the comfort and edification of believers would then lye almost all upon the right performance of family-duties There Masters might teach the same truth to their housholds which Ministers are forbid to preach in the Assemblies There you might pray together as fervently and spiritually as you can There you may keep up as holy converse and communion and as strict a discipline as you please There you may celebrate the praises of your blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and observe the Lords Day in as exact and spiritual a manner as you are able You may there provoke one another to Love and to good works and rebuke every sin and mind each other to prepare for death and live together as passengers to eternal life Thus holy families may keep up Religion and keep up the life and comfort of believers and supply the want of publick preaching in those Countreys where persecutors prohibit and restrain it or where unable or unfaithful Pastors do neglect it § 8. Motive 8. The duties of your families are such as you may perform with greatest peace and least exception Motive 8. or opposition from others When you go further and would be instructing others they will think you go beyond your Call and many will be suspicious that you take too much upon you And if you do but gently admonish a rowt of such as the Sodomites perhaps they will say This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a Iudge Gen. 19. 9. But your own house is your Castle Your family is your charge You may teach them as oft and as diligently as you will If the ungodly rabble scorn you for it yet no sober person will condemn you nor trouble you for it if you teach them no evil All men must confess that Nature and Scripture oblige you â—o it as your unquestionable work And therefore you may do it among sober people with approbation and quietness § 9. Motive 9. Well governed Families are honourable and exemplary unto others Even the worldly and Motive 9. ungodly use to bear a certain reverence to them For Holiness and Order have some witness that commendeth them in the consciences of many that never practised them A worldly ungodly disordered family is a Den of Snakes a place of hissing railing folly and confusion It is like a Wilderness overgrown with Bryars and Weeds But a holy family is a Garden of God It is beautified with his Graces and ordered by his Government and fruitful by the showres of his heavenly blessing And as the very sluggard that will not be at the cost and pains to make a Garden of his thorny Wilderness may yet confess that a Garden is more beautiful and fruitful and delightful and if wishing would do it his Wilderness should be such Even so the ungodly that will not be at the cost and pains to order their souls and families in holiness may yet see a beauty in those that are so ordered and wish for the happiness of such if they could have it without the labour and cost of self-denyal And no doubt the beauty of such holy and well governed families hath convinced many and drawn them to a great approbation of Religion and occasioned them at last to imitate them § 10. Motive 10. Lastly Consider That holy well governed families are blest with the special presence Motive 10. and favour of God They are his Churches where he is worshipped His houses where he dwelleth He is engaged both by Love and Promise to bless protect and prosper them Psal. 1. 3. 128. It is safe to sail in that Ship which is bound for Heaven and where Christ is the Pilot. But when you reject his Government you refuse his company and contemn his favour and forfeit his blessing by despising his presence his interest and his commands § 11. So that it is an evident truth that most of the mischiefs that now infest or seize upon mankind throughout the earth consist in or are caused by the disorders and ill-governedness of families These are the Schools and Shops of Satan from whence proceed the beastly ignorance lust and sensuality the devilish pride malignity and cruelty against the holy wayes of God which have so unman'd the progeny of Adam These are the Nests in which the Serpent doth hatch the Eggs of Covetousness Envy Strife Revenge of Tyranny Disobedience Wars and Bloodshed and all the Leprosie of sin that hath so odiously contaminated humane nature and all the miseries by which they make the world calamitous Do you wonder that there can be persons and Nations so blind and barbarous as we read of the Turks Tartarians Indians and most of the inhabitants of the earth A wicked education is the cause of all which finding nature depraved doth sublimate and increase the venome which should by education have been cured And from the wickedness of families doth National wickedness arise Do you wonder that so much ignorance and voluntary deceit and obstinacy in errors contrary to all mens common senses can be found among professed Christians as Great and small High and low through all the Papal Kingdom do discover Though the Pride and Covetousness and Wickedness of a worldly carnal Clergie is a very great cause yet the sinful negligence of Parents and Masters in their families is as great if not much greater than that Do you wonder that even in the Reformed Churches there can be so many unreformed sinners of beastly lives that hate the serious practice of the Religion which themselves profess It is ill education in ungodly families that is the cause of all this O therefore how great and necessary a work is it to cast Salt into these corrupted fountains Cleanse and cure these vitiated Families and you may cure almost all the calamities of the earth To tell what the Emperours and Princes of the earth might do if they were wise and good to the remedy of this common misery is the idle talk of those negligent persons who condemn themselves in condemning others Even those Rulers and Princes that are the Pillars and Patrons of Heathenisme Mahometanisme Popery and Ungodliness in the world did themselves receive that venome from their Parents in their birth and education which inclineth them to all this mischief Family-reformation is the easiest and the most likely way to a common Reformation At least to send many souls to Heaven and train up multitudes for God if it reach not to National reformation CHAP. VI. More special Motives for a holy and careful Education of Children BEcause the chief part of Family-Care and Government consisteth in the right Education of Children I shall adjoyn here some more special Motives to quicken considerate Parents to this duty And though most that I have to say for it be already said
Mr. Perkins and Mr. Boltons Works and many the like § 5 Direct 5. Next these read over those Books which are more suited to the state of young Christians for their growth in grace and for their exercise of Faith and Love and Obedience and for the mortifying of selfishness pride sensuality worldliness and other the most dangerous sins My own on this subject are my Directions for weak Christians my Saints Rest a Treatise of Self-denyal another of the Mischiefs of Self-ignorance Life of Faith of Crucifying the World the Unreasonableness of Infidelity of Right Rejoycing c. To this use these are excellent Mr. Hildershams Works Dr. Prestons Mr. Perkins Mr. Boltons Mr. Fenners Mr. Gurnalls Mr. Anthony Burgesses Sermons Mr. Lockier on the Colossiâ—ns with abundance more that God hath blest us with § 6. Direct 6. At the same time labour to methodize your knowledge and to that end read first and Direct 6. learn some short Catechism and then some larger as Mr. Balls or the Assemblies larger and next some Body of Divinity as Amesius his Marrow of Divinity and Cases of Conscience which are Englished And let the Catechisme be kept in memory while you live and the rest be throughly understood § 7. Direct 7. Next read to your selves or families the larger Expositions of the Creed Lords Direct 7. Prayer and Ten Commandments such as Perkins Bishop Andrews on the Commandments and Dod c. that your understanding may be more full particular and distinct and your families may not stop in Generals which are not understood § 8. Direct 8. Read much those Books which direct you in a course of daily communion with God and Direct 8. ordering all your conversations As Mr. Reyners Directions the Practice of Piety Mr. Palmers Mr. Scudders Mr. Boltons Directions and my Divine Life § 9. Direct 9. For Peace and Comfort and encrease of the Love of God read Mr. Symmonds Deserted Direct 9. Soul c. and his Life of Faith All Dr. Sibbs Works Mr. Harsnets Cordials Bishop Halls Works c. my Method for Peace and Saints Rest c. § 10. Direct 10. For the understanding of the Text of Scripture keep at hand either Deodates or Direct 10. the Assembly of Divines or the Dutch Annotations with Dr. Hammonds or Dicksons and Hutchinsons brief Observations § 11. Direct 11. For securing you against the Feavor of uncharitable Zeal and Schism and contentious Direct 11. wranglings and erâ—elties for Religion sake read diligently Bishop Halls Peacemaker and other of his Books Mr. Burroughs Irenicon Acontius Stratagems of Satan and my Catholick Unity Catholick Church Universal Concord c. § 12. Direct 12. For establishing you against Popery on the soundest grounds not running in the Direct 12. contrary extream read Dr. Challoners Credo Ecclesiam c. Chillingworth Dr. Field of the Church c. and my True Catholick and my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and Winding-sheet for Popery and Disputation with Mr. Johnson § 13. Direct 13. For special preparation for affliction sufferings sickness death read Mr. Hughs Direct 13. Rod Mr. Lawrence Christs power over sicknesses Mr. S. Rutherfords Letters c. my Treatise of Self-denyal The Believers Last Work the Last Enemy Death and the fourth Part of my Saints Rest. I will add no more lest they seem too many CHAP. XXII Directions for the right Teaching of Children and Servants so as may be most likely to have success I Here suppose them utterly untaught that you have to do with and therefore shall direct you what to do from the very first beginning of your Teaching and their learning And I beseech you study this Chapter more than many of the rest for it is an unspeakable loss that befalls the Church and the souls of men for want of skill and will and diligence in Parents and Masters in this matter § 1 Direct 1. Cause your younger Children to learn the words though they be not yet capable of Direct 1. understanding the matter And do not think as some do that this is but to make them Hypocrites and to teach them to take Gods Name in vain For it is neither Vanity nor Hypocrisie to help them first to understand the words and signs in order to their early understanding of the matter and signification Otherwise no man might teach them any language nor teach them to read any words that be good because they must first understand the words before the meaning If a child learn to read in a Bible it is not taking Gods Name or Word in vain though he understand it not For it is in order to his learning to understand it And it is not vain which is to so good a Use If you leave them untaught till they come to be twenty years of age they must then learn the words before they can understand the matter Do not therefore leave them the children of darkness for fear of makeing them hypocrites It will be an excellent way to redeem their Time to teach them first that which they are capable of learning A child of five or six years old can learn the words of a Catechisme or Scripture before they are capable of understanding them And then when they come to years of understanding that part of their work is done and they have nothing to do but to study the meaning and use of those words which they have learnt already Whereas if you leave them utterly untaught till then they must then be wasting a long time to learn the same words which they might have learnt before And the loss of so much time is no small loss or sin § 2. Direct 2. The most natural way of teaching children the Meaning of Gods Word and the Direct 2. Matters of their salvation is by familiar talk with them suited to their capacities Begin this betimes with them while they are on their Mothers laps and use it frequently For they are quickly capable of some understanding about greater matters as well as about less And knowledge must come in by slow degrees Stay not till their minds are prepossest with vanity and toyes Prov. 22. 6. § 3. Direct 3. By all means let your children learn to read though you be never so poor whatever Direct 3. shift you make And if you have servants that cannot read let them learn yet at spare hours if they be of any capacity and willingness For it is a very great mercy to be able to read the holy Scripture and any good Books themselves and a very great misery to know nothing but what they hear from others They may read almost at any time when they cannot hear § 4. Direct 4. Let your children when they are little ones read much the History of the Scriptures Direct 4. For though this of it self is not sufficient to breed in them any saving knowledge yet it enticeth them to delight in reading the Bible and then they
consenteth to the Covenant may boldly come and signifie his Consent and receive the sealed Covenant of God For Consent is your preparation or the necessary condition of your Right If you Consent not you refuse all the mercy of the Covenant And dare you live in such a state Suppose a Pardon be offered to a condemned Thief but so that if he after cast it in the dirt or turn Traytor he shall dye a sorer death will he rather choose to dye than take it and say I am afraid I shall abuse it To refuse Gods Covenant is certain death but to Consent is your preparation and your life § 25. Quest. 7. But what if Superiours compell such a Christian to communicate or else they will excommunicate Quest. 7. and imprison him What then should he choose Answ. If he could do it without his own souls hurt he should obey them supposing that it is nothing but that which in it self is good that they command him But they have their power to 2 Cor. 13. 10. Matth. 10. 28. edification and not to destruction and he must value his soul above his body and therefore it is past question that it is a smaller hurt to be excommunicated and lye and dye in Prison than to cast his soul into despair by doing that which he thinketh is a grievous sin and would be his damnation But all means must be used to cure the mistake of his own understanding § 26. Quest. 8. Is not the case of an Hypocrite that knoweth not himself to be an hypocrite and of Quest. 8. a sincere Christian that knoweth not himself to be sincere all one as to communicating when both are equally in doubt Answ. No For Being and Seeing are things that must be distinguished The one hath grace in Being though he see it not and therefore hath a Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at once remaineth obliged both to Discern his Title and to Come and take it And therefore if he come doubtingly his sin is not that he Receiveth but in the Manner of receiving that he doth it doubtingly And therefore it will be a greater sin not to receive at all unless in the last mentioned case wherein the consequents are like to be worse to him But the other hath no true Repentance or Faith or Love in Being and therefore hath no Right to the blessings of the Covenant and therefore at present is obliged to discern that he is graceless and to Repent of it and it is not his sin that he doubteth of his title but that he demandeth and taketh what he hath no title to And therefore it is a greater sin in him to Take it than to delay in order to his recovery and preparation Yea even in point of Comfort there is some disparity For though the true Christian hath far greater terrors than hypocrites when he taketh himself to be an unworthy Receiver as being more sensible and regardful of the weight of the matter yet usually in the midst of all his fears there are some secret testimonies in his heart of the Love of God which are a Cordial of hope that keep him from sinking into despair and have more life and power in them than all the hypocrites false perswasions of his own sincerity § 27. Quest. 9. Wherein lyeth the sin of an hypocrite and ungodly person if he do receive Quest. 9. Answ. His sin is 1. In lying and hypocrisie in that he professeth to Repent unfeignedly of his sin and to be resolved for a holy life and to Believe in Christ and to Accept him on his Covenant-terms and to give up himself to God as his Father his Saviour and his Sanctifier and to forsake the flesh the world and the Devil when indeed he never did any of this but secretly abhorreth it at his heart and will not be perswaded to it And so all this profession and his very Covenanting it self and his Receiving as it is a professing-Covenanting-sign is nothing but a very lye And what it is to lye to the Holy Chost the case of Ananias and Sapphira telleth us 2. It is usurpation to come and lay claim to those Benefits which he hath no title to 3. It is a prophanation of these holy mysteries to be thus Commandment 2. 3. Lev. 10. 2 3. used and it is a taking of Gods Name in vain who is a jealous God and will be sanctified of all that draw near unto him 4. And it is a wrong to the Church of God and the Communion of Saints and the honour of the Christian Religion that such ungodly hypocrites intrude as members As it is to the Kings Army when the enemies spies creep in amongst them or to his Marriage-feast to have a guest in rags Matth. 22. 11 12. Object But it is no Lye because they think they say true in their profession Answ. That is through their sinful negligence and self-deceit And he is a lyar that speaks a falshood which he may and ought to know to be a falshood though he do not know it There is a Lyar in Rashness and Negligence as well as of set purpose § 28. Quest. 10. Doth all unworthy receiving make a man lyable to damnation Or what unworthiness Quest. 10. is it that is so threatned 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. Answ. There are three sorts of unworthiness or unfitness and three sorts of judgement answerably to be feared 1. There is the utter unworthiness of an Infidel or Impenitent ungodly hypocrite And damnation to Hell fire is the punishment that such must expect if conversion prevent it not 2. There is an unworthiness through some great and scandalous crime which a regenerate person falleth into and this should stop him from the Sacrament for a time till he have repented and cast away his sin And if he come before he rise from his fall by a particular Repentance as the Corinthians that sinned in the very use of the Sacrament it self they may expect some notable Vid. Synod Doâ—â—draâ— suffrag Theol. Brittan in Artic 5. temporal judgement at the present and if Repentance did not prevent it they might fear eternal punishment 3. There is that measure of unworthiness which consisteth in the ordinary infirmities of a Saint and this should not at all deterr them from the Sacrament because it is accompanied with a greater worthiness yea though their weakness appear in the time and manner of their Receiving But yet ordinary corrections may follow these ordinary infirmities The grosser abuse of the Sacrament it self I joyn under the second rank Quest. 11. What is the particular preparation needful to a fit Communicant Quest. 11. Answ. This bringeth me up to the next Direction § 29. Direct 5. Let your Preparation to this Sacrament consist of these particulars following Direct 5. 1. In your duty with your own consciences and hearts 2. In your duty towards God 3. And in your duty towards your neighbour
your help or liberty to do it afterward when that once or few times doing it were like to hinder you from doing it any more it would be your duty then to forbear it for that time unless in some extraordinary case For even for the life of an Oxe or an Asse and for Mercy to mens bodies the rest and holy work of a Sabbath might be interrupted much more for the souls of many Again I warn you as you must not pretend the interest of the end against a peremptory absolute command of God so must you not easily conclude a command to be absolute and peremptory to that which certainly contradicts the End nor easily take that for a Duty which certainly is no means to that good which is the end of duty or which is against it Though yet no seeming aptitude as a means must make that seem a duty which the prohibition of God hath made a sin § 26. Direct 15. It is ever unseasonable to perform a lesser duty of Worship when a greater Direct 15. should be done Therefore it much concerneth you to be able to discern when two duties are inconsistent which is then the greater and to be preferred In which the Interest of the end must much direct you that being usually the greatest which hath the greatest tendency to the greatest good § 27. Direct 16. Pretend not one part of Gods Worship against another when all in their Direct 16. place and order may be done Set not Preaching and Praying against each other nor publick and private Worship against each other nor internal Worship against external but do all § 28. Direct 17. Let not an inordinate respect to man or common custome be too strong a byas to Direct 17. pervert your judgements from the Rule of Worship nor yet any groundless prejudice make you distaste that which is not to be disliked The errour on these two extreams doth fill the World with corruption and contentions about the Worship of God Among the Papists and Russians and other ignorant sort of Christians abundance of corruptions are continued in Gods Worship by the Majus fidei impedimentum ex inveâ—eraâ—â consuetudine proficiscitur Ubique consuetudo magnas vires habet sed in barbaris longe maximas quippe ubi rationis est minimum ibi consueâ—udo radices profundiâ—â—imas agit In omni natura motio eò diuturnioâ— ac vehemenâ—ior quo magis est ad unum determinaâ—a Ios. Acosta de Iâ—d l. 2. p. 249. meer power of custome tradition and education and all seemeth right to which they have been long used and hence the Churches in South East and West continue so long overspread with ignorance and refuse reformation And on the other side meer prejudice makes some so much distaste a prescribed form of Prayer or the way of Worship which they have not been used to and which they have heard some good men speak against whose judgements they highlyest esteemed that they have not room for sober impartial reason to deliberate try and judge Factions have engaged most Christians in the World into several parties whereby Satan hath got this great advantage that instead of Worshipping God in Love and Concord they lay out their zeal in an envious bitter censorious uncharitable reproaching the manner of each others Worship And because the interest of their Parties requireth this they think the interest of the Church and Cause of God requireth it and that they do God service when they make the Religion of other men seem odious when as among most Christians in the World the errours of their modes of Worship are not so great as the adverse parties represent them except only the two great crimes of the Popish Worship 1. That it 's not understood and so is See Bishop Ier. Tailours late Book against Popery souleless 2. They Worship bread as God himself which I am not so able as willing to excuse from being Idolatry Judge not in such cases by passion partiality and prejudice § 29. Direct 18. Yet judge in all such Controversies with that reverence and charity which Direct 18. is due to the universal and the Primitive Church If you find any thing in Gods Worship which the primitive or universal Church agreed in you may be sure that it is nothing but what is consistent with acceptable Worship For God never rejected the Worship of the primitive or universal Church And it is not so much as to be judged erroneous without great deliberation and very good proof We must be much more suspicious of our own understandings § 30. Direct 19. In circumstances and modes of Worship not forbidden in the Word of God affect Direct 19. not singularity and do not easily differ from the practice of the Church in which you hold Communion nor from the commands or directions of your lawful Governours It 's true if we are forbidden with Dan. 3. Act. 4. 17 18. 5. 28. Daniel to Pray or with the Apostles to speak any more in the name of Christ or are commanded as the three witnesses Dan. 3. to Worship Images we must rather obey God than man and so in case of any sin that is commanded us But in case of meer different modes and circumstances and order of Worship see that you give authority and the consent of the Church where you are their due § 31. Direct 20. Look more to your own hearts than to the abilities of the Ministers or the Ceremonies Direct 20. or manner of the Churches Worship in such lesser things It is Heart-work and Heaven-work that the sincere believer comes about and it is the corruption of his heart that is his heaviest burden which he groaneth under with the most passionate complaints A hungry soul enflamed with Love to God and man and tenderly sensible of the excellency of common truths and duties would make up many defects in the manner of publick administration and would get nearer God in a defective imperfect mode of Worship than others can do with the greatest helps When Hypocrites find so little work with their Hearts and Heaven that they are Jam. 3. 15 16 17. taken up about words and forms and ceremonies and external things applauding their own way and condemning other mens and serving Satan under pretence of Worshipping God CHAP. III. Directions about the Christian Covenant with God and Baptism § 1. THough the first Tome of this Book is little more than an explication of the Christian Covenant with God yet being here to speak of Baptism as a part of Gods Worship it is needful that I briefly speak also of the Covenant it self § 1. Direct 1. It is a matter of great importance that you well understand the nature Direct 1. of the Christian Covenant what it is I shall therefore here briefly open the nature of it and then speak of the Reasons of it and then of the solemnizing it by Baptism and next of our Renewing it
nothing home at last but repentance and shame Truth which is the means of the good of souls must not be betrayed as for the good of souls § 37. Direct 26. Doubt not of well proved Truths for every difficulty that appeareth against them Direct 26. There is scarce any truth in the World so plain but in your own thoughts or in the câ—vâ—ls of a wrangling wit there may such difficulties be raised as as you can hardly answer And there is scarce any thing so evident that some will not dispute against You see that even the learnedst Jesuits and all the Clergy of the Roman Kingdom will not stick to dispute all the World if they could out of the belief of all their senses while they maintain that Bread is not Bread and wine is not wine And yet how many Princes Lords and Rulers follow them and many millions of the people because they be not able to confute them If they had said that a man is no man but a warm Psal. 22. 6. they might in reason have expected as much belief § 38. Direct 27. Abuse not your own knowledge by subjecting it to your carnal interest or sensuality Direct 27. He that will sin against his Conscience and will not obey the Knowledge which he hath doth Maâ—â—5 29. Rom. 14. 22. deserve to be given over to blindness and deceit and to lose even that which he hath and to be forsaken till he believe and defend a lye that all they might be damned who obeyed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. God will not hold him guiltless who debaseth his sacred truth so far as to make it stoop to his commodity and â—ust where he is a Teacher he will be a King and sendeth his Truth as the instrument of his Government and not as a slave or pandor to the flesh He that will do Gods will shall know it Joh. 7. 17. But the carnal mind that cannot be subject to Gods Law is unfit to receive it because it is spiritually discerned Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. CHAP. VIII Directions for the Union and Communion of Saints and the avoiding unpeaceableness and Schism THE PEACE and CONCORD of Believers is a thing that almost all those plead Of this subjâ—ct I have written already 1. My Univâ—â—sal Concord 2. My Catholiâ—k Unity 3. Of the True Catholick Châ—râ—h 4. My Châ—istiaâ— Coâ—â—ord for who call themselves Believers and yet a thing that almost all men hinder and resist while they commend it The Discord and DIVISIONS of believers are as commonly spoken against and by the same men as commonly fomented The few that are sincere both Rulers and private men desire Concord and hate Divisions in Love to Holiness which is promoted by it and in Love to the Church and good of souls and the honour of Religion and the Glâ—ry of God And the few of those few that are experienced wise judicious persons do choose the means that is fittest to attain these ends and do prudently and constantly prosecute them accordingly But these being in the World as a spoonful of fresh water cast into the Sea or a spoonful of water cast into the flames of a house on fire no wonder if the brinish Sea be not sweetened by them nor the consuming raging fire quenched by them The other Rulers of the world and of the Churches are for Concord and against Division because this tendeth to the quieting of the people under them Read over Sr. Fr. Bacoâ—s third Essaâ— and Hales of Schism and the making of men submissive and obedient to their wills and so to confirm their dignities dominions and interests And all men that are not Hâ—ly being predominantly SELFISH they would all be themselves the Center of that Union and bond of that concord which they desire And they would have it accomplished upon such terms â—â—d by such means as are most agreeable to their principles and Ends In which there are almost a many minds as Men so that among all the Commenders of UNITY and concord there are none that take the way to attain it but those that would center it all in GOD and seek it upon his terms and in his way The rest are all tearing Unity and Peace in pieces while they commend it and they fight against it while they seek it every man seeking it for Himself and upon his own terms and in his own way which are so various and inconsistent that East and West may sooner meet than they § 2. Yet must the sons of God be still the sons of Peace and continue their prayers and endeavours for UNITY how small soever be the hopes of their success If it be possible as much as in us lyeth Rom. 12 18. we must live peaceably with all men So far must they be from being guilty of any Schismes or unlawful Divisions of the Church that they must make it a great part of their care and work to preserve the Unity and peace of Christians In this therefore I shall next Direct them § 3. Direct 1. Understand first wherein the Unity of Christians and Churches doth consist Or else Direct 1. you will neither know how to preserve it nor when you violate it Christians are said to be United In vâ—ste Christi varietas siâ— sâ—issura non sit They be two things Unity and Uniformity â— Bacoâ— Essay 3. to Christ when they are entered into Covenant with him and are become his Disciples his Subjects and the members of his Political Body They are united to one another when they are united to Christ their common head and when they have that spirit that faith that Love which is communicated to every living member of the body This Union is not the making of many to be One Christian but of many Christians to be one Church which is considerable either as to its Internal Life or its external order and profession In the former respect the bonds of our Union are 1. The heart-Covenant or faith 2. And the spirit The Consent of Christ and of our selves concurring doth make the match or marriage between us and the spirit communicated from him to us is as the nerves or ligaments of the body or rather as the spirits which pass through all The Union of the Church considered Visibly in its outward Policy is either that of the whole Church or of the Particular Churches within themselves or of divers particular Churches accidentally united 1. The Union of the whâ—le is Essential integral or accidental The essential Union is that Relation of a Head and members which is between Christ and all the visible members of his Church The foundation of it is the mutual Covenant between Christ and them considered on their part as made Externally whether sincerely or not This is usually done in Baptism and is the chiefest act of their Profession of the faith Thus the Baptismal Covenant doth constitute us
faith or Religion while he pretendeth to hold all the rest he is an Heretick If he deny the whole Christian faith he is a flat Apostate and these are more than to be Schismaticks § 12. The word Heresie also is variously taken by Ecclesiastick writers Austin will have Heresie to be an inveterate schism Hierome maketh it to be some perverse opinion Some call every Schism which gathereth a separated party from the rest by the name of Heresie Some call it a Heresie if there be a perillous errour though without any Schism Some call it a Heresie only when Schism is made and a party separated upon the account of some perillous errour Some say this errour must be damnable that is in the essentials of Religion And some say it is enough if it be but dangerous Among all these the commonest sense of a Heretick is One that obstinately erreth in some essential point and divideth from the Communion of other Christians upon that account And so Paraeus and many Protestants take Heresie for the Species and Schism for the Genus All Schism is not Heresie but all Heresie say they is Schism Remember that all this is but a Controversie de nomine and therefore of small moment § 13. By this that I have said you may perceive who they be that are guilty of Church-divisions Who are true Schismaticks As 1. The sparks of it are kindled when Proud and self-conceited persons are brainsick in the fond estimation of their own opinions and heart-sick by a feaverish zeal for the propagating of them Ignorant souls think that every change of their opinions is made by such an accession of heavenly light that if they should not bestir them to make all of the same mind they should be betrayers of the truth and do the world unspeakable wrong When they measure and censure men as they receive or reject their peculiar discoveries or conceits schism is in the Egge § 14. 2 The fire is blown up when men are desirous to have a party follow them and cry them up and thereupon are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and do speak perverse things to Act. 20. 20. draw away disciples after them And when they would be counted the Masters of a party § 15. 3. The flames break forth when by this means the same Church or divers Churches do Jam. 3. 13 14 15 16 17. fall into several Parties burning in zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely at one another as being on several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor members of the same body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo and another of Cepha◠and every one of a faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to represent one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these people whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore It is schism in the bud § 16. 4. When people in the same Church do gather into private meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in Love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their singular opinions and increase their parties and speak against those that are not on their side schism is then ready to bring forth and multiply and the swarm is ready to come forth and be gone § 17. 5. When these people actually depart and renounce or forsake the Communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause When thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is schism ripe and fruitful The swarm is gone and hived in another place § 18. 6. If now the neighbour Churches by their Pastors in their Synods shall in compassion seek to reclaim these straglers and they justifie their unjust separation and contemn the counsel of the Churches and Ministers of Christ this is a confirmed obstinate schism § 19. 7. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the body of Christ by an unrighteous censure and condemn the innocent and usurp authority over their Guides this is disobedience and uncharitableness with schism § 20. 8. If they shall also condemn and unchurch all the other Churches that are not of their mind and way and renounce communion with them all and so condemn unjustly a great part of the Body of Christ on Earth this is to add fury and rebellion to an uncharitable schism And if to cover their sin they shall unjustly charge these Churches which they reject with Heresie or wickedness they do but multiply their crimes by such extenuations § 21. 9. If the opinion that all this adoe is made for be a damning errour against some essential point of the true Religion then it is Heresie as well as Schism § 22. 10. If this separation from the Church be made in defense of an ungodly life against the Discipline of the Church If a wicked sort of men shall withdraw from the Church to avoid the disgrace of confession or excommunication and shall first cast off the Church lest the Church should proceed to cast out them and so they separate that they may have none to govern and trouble them but themselves this is a Prophane rebellious schism This is the common course of schism when it groweth towards the height § 23. 11. Besides all these there is yet a more pernicious way of Schism which the Church or Court of Rome is guilty of They make new articles of faith and new points of Religion and a new worship of God shall I say or of Bread as if it were a God And all these they put into a Law and impose them on all the other Churches yea they put them into an Oath and require men to swear that without any doubting they believe them to be true They pretend to have authority for all this as Rome is the Mistress of all other Churches They set up a new Universal Head as an Essential part of the Catholick Church and so found or fain a new kind of Catholick Church And he that will not obey them in all this they renounce Communion with him and to hide this horrid notorious schism they call all Schismaticks that are not thus subjected to them § 24. 12. And to advance
their schism to the height as far as arrogance can aspire they not only refuse communion with those from whom they separate but condemn them as no Pastors no Churches no Christians that are not subject to them in this their Usurpation And they that are but about the third or fourth part at most of the Christian world do condemn the Body of Christ to Hell even all the rest because they are not Subjects of the Pope § 25. Besides all this criminal odious Schism of Imposers or Separaters there is a degree of Schism or unjust Division which may be the infirmity of a good and peaceable person As if a humble tender Christian should mistakingly think it unlawful to do some action that is imposed upon all that will hold communion with that particular Church such as Paul speaketh of Rom. 14. if they had been imposed And if he suspecting his own understanding do use all means to know the truth and yet still continueth in his mistake If this Christian do forbear all reviling of his superiours and censuring those that differ from him and drawing others to his opinion but yet dare not joyn with the Church in that which he taketh to be a sin this is a sinful sort of withdrawing because it is upon mistake But yet it is but a pardonable infirmity consistent with integrity and the favour of God § 26. IV. In these cases following Separation is our duty and not a sin 1. The Churches separation What Separation is a duty from the Unbelieving world is a necessary duty For what is a Church but a society dedicated or sanctified to God by separation from the rest of the world 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive 1 Pet. 2. 5 7 9. Leg. Gâ—otâ—um de Imp. pag. 230 231. you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty The Church is a Holy people and therefore a separated people § 27. 2. If a Church apostatize and forsake the faith or if they turn notoriously Heretical denying openly any one Essential Article of the faith and this not only by an undiscerned consequence but directly in express terms or sense it is our duty to deny to hold communion with such Apostates or Hereticks For it is their separating from Christ that is the sinful separation and maketh it necessary to us to separate from them But this is no excuse to any Church or person that shall falsly accuse any other Church or person of Heresie because of some forced or disowned consequences of his Doctrine and then separate from them when they have thus injured them by their calumnies or censures § 28. We are not bound to own that as a Church which maketh not a visible Profession of faith and holiness that is If the Pastors and a sufficient number of the flock make not this Profession For as the Pastor and flock are the constituent parts of the Church politically considered so Profession of faith and holiness is the essential qualification of the members If either Pastors or people want this profession it is no Political Church But if the people profess true Religion and have no Pastors it is a community of believers or a Church unorganized and as such to be acknowledged § 29. 4. If any shall unlawfully constitute a new Political Church-form by making new constitutive Officers to be its Visible Head which Christ never appointed we are not to hold communion with the Church in its devised form or Polity though we may hold Communion with the members of it considered as Christians and members of the Universal Church Mark well that I do not say that every new devised Officer disobligeth us from such communion but such as I describe which I shall sullyer open § 30. Quest. May not men place new Officers in the Church and new forms of Government which Quest. Whether any form of Church-Government be of Divine appointment and whether man may appoint any other God never instituted or is there any form and Officers of Divine institution Answ. Though I answered this before I shall here briefly answer it again 1. There are some sorts of Officers that are essential to the Polity or Church-form and some that are only needful to the well-being of it and some that are only Accidental 2. There is a Church-form of Gods own institution and there is a superadded humane Polity or form There are two sort of Churches or Church-forms of Gods own institution The first is the Universal Church considered Politically as Headed by Jesus Christ This is so of Divine appointment as that it is an Article of our Creed Here if any man devise and superinduce another Head of the Universal Church which God never appointed though he pretend to hold his Soveraignty from Christ and under him it is Treason against the soveraignty of Christ as setting up an Universal Government or Soveraign in his Church without his authority and consent Thus the Pope is the Usurping Head of a Rebellion against Christ and in that sense by Protestants called Antichrist And he is guilty of the Rebellion that subscribeth to or owneth his Usurpation or sweareth to him as his Governour though he promise to obey him but in licitis honestis Because it is not lawful or honest to consent to a Usurpers Government If a Usurper should trayterously without the Kings consent proclaim himself Vice-King of Ireland or Scotland and falsly say that he hath the Kings Authority when the King disclaimeth him he that should voluntarily swear obedience to him in things lawful and honest doth voluntarily own his Usurpation and Treason And it s not the lawfulness and honesty of the matter which will warrant us to own the Usurpation of the Commander And Secondly There is another subordinate Church-form of Christs institution that is Leg. Grotium de Imp. p. 223. 226. Particular Churches consisting of Pastors and people conjoyned for personal Communion in Gods Worship These are to the Universal Church as particular Corporations are to a Kingdom even such Parts of it as have a distinct subordinate Polity of their own It is no City or Corporation if they have not their Mayors Bâ—ilists or other Chief Officers subject to the King as Governours of the people under him And it is no particular Church in a Political sense but only a Community if they have not their Pastors to be under Christ their spiritual Conductors in the matters of salvation as there is no School which is not constituted of Teacher and Schâ—lars That particular organized Political Churches are of Christs institution by his Spirit in the Apostles is undenyable Acts 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church Tit. 1. 5. Ordain Elders in every City as I commanded thee Acts 20. 17. He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders
to a more edifying Church that useth all the publick Ordinances of God unless the publick good forbid or some great impediment or contrary duty be our excuse § 36. 11. If a true Church will not cast out any impenitent notorious scandalous sinner though 2 John 10. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Rom. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 5. 11. I am not to separate from the Church yet I am bound to avoid private familiarity with such a person that he may be ashamed and that I partake not of his sin § 37. 12. As the Church hath diversity of members some more holy and some less and some of whole sincerity we have small hope some that are more honourable and some less some that walk Mat. 13. 41 30. Jer. 15. 19. 1 Cor. 12. 23 24. blamelesly and some that work iniquity So Ministers and private members are bound to difference between them accordingly and to honour and love some far above others whom yet we may not excommunicate And this is no sinful separation § 38. 13. If the Church that I live and communicate with do hold any tolerable error I may differ therein from the Church without a culpable separation Union with the Church may be continued with all the diversities before mentioned D. 3. § 10. § 39. 14. In case of persecution in one Church or City when the servants of Christ do flye to another having no special reason to forbid it this is no sinful separation Matth. 10. 23. § 40. 15. If the publick service of the Church require a Minister or a private Christian to remove to another Church if it be done deliberately and upon good advice it is no sinful separation § 41. 16. If a Lawful Prince or Magistrate command us to remove our habitation or command a Minister from one Church to another when it is not notoriously to the detriment of the common interest of Religion it is no sinful separation to obey the Magistrate § 42. 17. If a poor Christian that hath a due and tender care of his salvation do find that under one Minister his soul declineth and groweth dead and under another that is more sound and clear and lively he is much edified to a holy and heavenly frame and life and if hereupon preferring his salvation before all things he remove to that Church and Minister where he is most edified without unchurching the other by his censures this is no sinful separation but a preferring the One thing needful before all § 43. 18. If one part of the Church have leisure opportunity cause and earnest desires to meet ofter for the edifying of their souls and redeeming their time than the poorer labouring or careless and less zealous part will meet in any fit place under the oversight and conduct of their Pastors and not in opposition to the more publick full assemblies as they did Acts 12. 12. to pray for Peter at the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying and Acts 10. 1 c. this is no sinful separation § 44. 19. If a mans own outward affairs require him to remove his habitation from one City or Countrey to another and there be no greater matter to prohibite it he may lawfully remove his local communion from the Church that he before lived with to that which resideth in the place he goeth to For with distant Churches and Christians I can have none but Mental Communion or by distant means as writing messengers c. It is only with present Christians that I can have local personal communion § 45. 20. It is possible in some cases that a man may live long without local personal communion with any Christians or Church at all and yet not be guilty of sinful separation As the Kings Embassadour or Agent in a Land of Infidels or some Traveller Merchants Factors or such as go to convert the Infidels or those that are banished or imprisoned In all these twenty cases some kind of separation may be lawful § 46. 21. One more I may add which is when the Temples are so small and the Congregations so great that there is no room to hear and joyn in the publick Worship or when the Church is so excessively great as to be uncapable of the proper ends of the society in this case to divide or withdraw is no sinful separation When one Hive will not hold the Bees the swarm must seek themselves another without the injury of the rest By all this you may perceive that sinful separation is first in a censorious uncharitable mind condemning Churches Ministers and Worship causelesly as unfit for them to have communion with And Secondly it is in the personal separation which is made in pursuance of this censure But not in any local removal that is made on other lawful grounds § 47. Direct 4. Understand and consider well the Reasons why Christ so frequently and earnestly Direct 4. presseth Concord on his Church and why he so vehemently forbiddeth Divisions Observe how much the Scripture speaketh to this purpose and upon what weighty Reasons Here are four things distinctly to be represented to your serious consideration 1. How many plain and urgent are the Texts that speak for Unity and condemn Division 2. The great Benefits of Concord 3. And the mischiefs of Discord and Divisions in the Church 4. And the Aggravations of the sin § 48. I. A true Christian that hateth fornication drunkenness lying perjury because they are forbidden in the Word of God will hate Divisions also when he well observeth how frequently and vehemently they are forbidden and Concord highly commended and commanded John 17. 21 22 23. That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also See Rom. 14. throughout Rom. 15. 12. 5 6 7. may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Ephes. 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. thou hast loved me Here you see that the Unity of the Saints must be a special means to convince the Infidel world of the truth of Christianity and to prove Gods special Love to his Church and 1 Pet. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 12. throughout Phil. 3. 15 16. Acts 2. 1 46. 4. 32. also to accomplish their own perfection 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions or Schisms among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement For it hath been declared to me of you my brethren that there are contentions among you Rom. 12. 4 5. Psalm 133. 1 Cor. 8. 1
you and tell you that as you are the subjects of the Pope you are none of the Church of Christ at all From this treasonable conspiracy we withdraw our selves But as Coacil Tolâ—t 4. c. 61. 28. q. 1. Ca. Iudai qui allow separation from a Jewish husband if afâ—er admonition he will not be a Christian and so doth Aâ—osta and his Coâ—cil Lirâ—â—s l. 6. c. 21. and other Jesuits and allow the marrying of another And sure the Conjugal bond is faster than that of a Pastor and his sâ—ock may not a man then change his Pastor when his soul is in apparent hazzard you are the subjects of Christ we never divided from you nor denyed you our Communion Let Reason judge now who are the Dividers And is it not easie to know which is the Church in the Division It is all those that are still united unto Christ If you or we be divided from Christ and from Christians that are his Body we are then none of the Church But if we are not Divided from Christ we are of the Church still If part of a Tree though the far greater part be out off or separated from the rest it is that part how small soever that still groweth with the Root that is the living Tree The Indian Fig-tree and some other Trees have branches that take root when they touch the ground If now you ask me whether the branches springing from the second Root are members of the first Tree I answer 1. The rest that have no new Root are more undoubtedly members of it 2. If any branches are separated from the first Tree and grow upon the new root alone the case is out of doubt 3. But if yet they are by continuation joyned to both that Root which they receive their nutriment most from is it which they most belong to Suppose a Tyrant counterseit a Commission from the King to be Vice-King in Ireland and proclaimeth all them to be Traytors that receive him not The King disclaimeth him the wisest subjects renounce him and the rest obey him but so as to profess they do it because they believe him to be commissioned by the King Let the question be now who are the Dividers in Ireland and who are the Kings truest subjects and what Head it is that denominateth the Kingdom and who are the Traytors This is your case § 58. 2. Divisions are the deformities of the Church Cut off a nose or pluck out an eye or dismember either a man or a picture and see whether you have not deformed it Ask any compassionate Christian ask any insulting enemy whether our Divisions be not our deformity and shame the lamentation of friends and the scorn of enemies § 59. 3. The Churches Divisions are not our own dishonour alone but the injurious dishonour of Christ and Religion and the Gospel The World thinketh that Christ is an impotent King that cannot keep his Kingdom at unity in it self when he hath himself told us that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Mat. 12. 25. They think the Gospel tendeth to Division and is a doctrine of dissention when they see divisions and dissentions procured by it They impute all the faults of the subjects to the King and think that Christ was confused in his Legislation and knew not what to teach or command because men are confounded in their opinions or practices and know not what to think or do If men misunderstand the Law of Christ and one saith This is the sense and another saith that is the sense they are ready to think that Christ spake non-sense or understood not himself because the ignorant understand him not Who is there that converseth with the ungodly of the World that heareth not by their reproach and scorns how much God and Religion are dishonoured by the Divisions of Religious people § 60. 4. And thus also our Divisions do lamentably hinder the progress of the Gospel and the conversion and salvation of the ungodly World They think they have small encouragement to be of your Religion while your Divisions seem to tell them that you know not what Religion to be of your selves Whatever Satan or wicked men would say against Religion to discourage the ungodly from it the same will exasperated persons in these Divisions say against each others way And when every one of you condemneth another how should the Consciences of the ungodly perswade them to expect salvation in any of those ways which you thus condemn Doubtless the Divisions of the Christian world have done more to hinder the conversion of Infidels and keep the Heathen and Mahometane World in their damnable ignorance and delusions than all our power is able to undoe and have produced such desolations of the Church of Christ and such a plentiful harvest and Kingdom for the Devil as every tender Christian heart is bound to lament with tears of bitterness If it must be that such offence shall come yet woe to those by whom they come § 67. 5. Divisions lay open the Churches of Christ not only to the scorn but to the malice will and fury of their enemies A Kingdom or house divided cannot stand Matth. 12. 25. where hath the Church been destroyed or Religion rooted out in any Nation of the Earth but divisions had a Rev. 17. 13. principal hand in the effect O what desolations have they made among the flocks of Christ As Seneca and others opened their own veins and bled to death when Nero or such other Tyrants did send them their commands to Die even so have many Churches done by their divisions to the gratifying of Satan the enemy of souls § 62. 6. Divisions among Christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the Church while they are possessed with envyings and distaste of one another they lose all the benefit of each others gifts and of that holy communion which they should have with one another And they are possessed with that zeal and wisdom which Iames calleth earthly sensual and devillish which corrupteth Eph. 4. 16. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Rom. 15. 19. Acts 9. 3â— all their affections and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease and maketh their very worshipping of God to become the increase of their sin Where divisions and contentions are the members that should grow up in humility meekness self-denyal holiness and love do grow in pride and perverse disputings and passionate strivings and envious wranglings The Spirit of God departeth from them and an evil Spirit of malice and vexation taketh place though in their passion they know not what Spirit they are of Whereas if they be of one mind and live in peace the God of love and peace will be with them What lamentable instances of this calamity have we in many of the Sectaries of this present time Especially in the people called Quakers that while they
pretend to the greatest austerities do grow up to such a measure of sowre pride and uncharitable contempt of others and especially of all superiours and hellish railing against the holiest Ministers and people as we have scarce known or ever read of § 63. 7. These Divisions fill the Church with sin even with sins of a most odious nature They introduce a swarm of errors while it becomes the Mode for every one to have a doctrine of his own and to have something to say in Religion which may make him notable Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them They cherish pride and malice and belying others the three great sins of the Devil as naturally as dead flesh breedeth Worms They destroy impartial Christian Love as naturally as bleeding doth consume our vital heat and moisture What wickedness is it that they will not cherish In a word the Scripture telleth us The Greek word is Zeal that where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work And is not this a lamentable way of Reformation of some imaginary or lesser evils § 64. 8. These Divisions are the grief of honest spectators and cause the sorrows of those that are guilty of them They make all their duties uneasie to them and turn their Religion into a bitter unpleasant wrangling toil Like Oxâ—n in the yoke that strive against each other when they should draw in order and equality What a grievous life is it to Husband and Wife or any in the family if they live in discord So is it to the members of the Church When once men take the Kingdom of God to consist of meats or drinks or ceremonies which consisteth in Righteousness and Peace and Rom. 14. 17. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Joy in the Holy Ghost and turn to strive about unedifying questions they turn from all the sweetness of Religion § 65. 9. Sects and Divisions lead directly to Apostacy from the faith Nothing is more in the design of Satan than to confound men so with variety of Religions that they may think there is no certainty in any that so both the ignorant spectators may think all Religion is but fancy and deceit and the contenders themselves wheel about from Sect to Sect till they come to the point where they first set out and to be at last deliberately of no Religion who at first were of none for want of deliberation And it is no small success that Satan hath had by this temptatation § 66. 10. The Divisions of Christians do oft proceed to shake States and Kingdoms having a â—amentable influence upon the Civil peace And this stirreth up Princes jealousies against them and to the use of those severities which the suffering party takes for persecution yea and Turks and all Princes that are enemies to Reformation and Holiness do justifie themselves in their cruellest persecutions when they see the Divisions of Christians and the troubles of States that have followed thereupon If Christians and Protestants in special did live in that Unity Peace and Order as their Lord and Ruler requireth them to do the consciences of persecuters would even worry and torment them and make their lives a Hell on earth for their cruelty against so excellent a sort of men But now when they see them all in confusions and see the troubles that follow hereupon and hear them reviling one another they think they may destroy them as the troublers of the earth and their consciences scarce accuse them for it § 67. IV. It is necessary also for your true understanding the malignity of this sin that you The Aggravations of Schism take notice of the Aggravations of it especially as to us 1. It is a sin against so many and clear and vehement words of the Holy Ghost which I have partly before recited that it is therefore utterly without excuse Whoredoms and Treasons and Perjury are not oftner forbidden in the Gospel than this § 68. 2. It is contrary to the very design of Christ in our Redemption which was to Reconcile us all to God and unite and center us all in him To gather together in one the Children of God that are scattered abroad John 11. 52. To gather together in one all things in Christ Ephes. 1. 10. To make in himself of twain one new man so making peace Ephes. 2. 15. And shall we joyn with Satan the divider and destroyer against Christ the Reconciler in the very design of his Redemption § 69. 3. It is contrary to the design of the Spirit of Grace and contrary to the very nature of Christianity it self By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have all been made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12 13. As there is one Body and one Spirit so it is our charge to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes. 4. 3 4. The new nature of Christians doth consist in Love and desireth the Communion of Saints as such And therefore the command of this special Love is called the New Commandment John 17. 21. 13. 34. 15. 12 17. And they are said to be taught of God to love one another 1 Thess. 4 9. As self-preservation is the chief principle in the Natural body which causeth it to abhorr the wounding or amputation of its members and to avoid division as destruction except when a gangrened member must be cut off for the saving of the body so it is also with the mystical body of Christ. He is senseless and graceless that abhorreth not Church-wounds § 70. 4. These Divisions are sins against the nearest bonds of our high Relations to each other We are Brethren and should there be any strife among us Gen. 13. 8. We are all the children of Rom. 8. 16. 9. 26. God by faith in Christ Iesus Gal. 3. 26. We are the fellow-members of the body of Christ and 1 John 5. 2. should we tear his body and separate his members and cut his flesh and break his bones Eph. 5. 23. 30. For as the Body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. As we have many members in one body so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another Rom. 12. 4 5. He that woundeth or dismembreth your own bodies shall scarce be taken for your friend And are you Christs friends when you dismember or wound his body Is it lovely to see the children or servants Quicquid ad multitudinem vergit antipatâ—â—am continet quanto magis multitudo augetur tanto â—â—â—â—pathia quicquid vero ad unitatem tendit sympathiam habet quanto magis ad unitatem accedit tanto puâ—â—ori sympathia augetur Paul Scaliâ—er Epist. Cath. l. 3. p. 176. in your family together by the ears Is Civil Wars for
Love are the Churches dissolution which first causeth sissures and separations and in process crumbleth us all to dust And therefore the Pastors of the Church are the fittest instruments for the cure who are the Messengers of Love and whose Government is paternal and hurteth not the body but is only a Government of Love and exercised by all the means of Love All Christians in the world confess that LOVE is the very â—â—â—â— and perfection of all Grace and the End of all our other duties and that which maketh us like to God and that iâ— Love dwelleth in us God dwelleth in us and that it will be the everlasting Grace and the work of Heaven and the Happiness of souls and that it is the excellent way and the character of Saints and the Nâ—w Commandmâ—nt And all this being so it is most certain that no way is the 1 â—â—â—â— 4. 7. 8. â—â—â—â— 13 35. 〈…〉 way of God wâ—â—câ—â—â— not the way of Love And therefore what specious pretences soever they may have and one may cry up Truth and another Holiness and another order and another Unity it seâ—â— to jâ—â—â—â—â— their â—nvyings hatred cruelties it is most certain that all such pretences are Satanical deceiâ—â— And â—â— they bile and devour one another they are not like the sheep of Christ but shall be dâ—â—â—â—â—â—d one of another Gal. 5. 15. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling 〈…〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 of the Law Rom. 13. 10. When Papists that shew their love to mens souls by racking their bodies and fryâ—â—g them in the fire can make men apprehensive of the excellency of that kind of Love they may â—â—â—â— it to the healing of the Church In the mean time as their Religion is such is their Concord while all those are called Members of their Union and Professors of their Religion who must be burnt to ashes if they say the contrary They that give God an Image and Carkass of Religion â—â—â—â— 1. 4 are thus content with the Image and Carkass of a Church for the exercise of it And if there were nothing â—llâ— but this to detect the sinfulness of the Sect of Quakers and many more it is enough to satisfie any sober man that it cannot be the way of God God is not the author of that Spirit and way which tends to wrath emulation hatred railing and the extinction of Christian Love to all â—â—vâ— their own Sect and party Remember as you love your souls that you shun all wayes that are destructive to universal Christian Love § 83. Direct 6. Make nothing necessary to the unity of the Church or the communion of Christians Direct 6. which God hath not made necessary or directed you to make so By this one â—olly the Papists are become see 〈…〉 p. 52â— the most notorious Schismaticks on earth even by making new Articles of faith and new parts of worship and imposing them on all Christians to be sworn subscribed professed or practised so as that no man shall be accounted a Catholick or have communion with them or with the Universal Church if they could hinder it that will not follow them in all their Novelties They that would subscribe to all the Scriptures and to all the antient Creeds of the Church and would do any thing that Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned and go every step of that way to Heaven that Peter and Paul went as far as they are able yet if they will go no further and believe no more yeâ— if they will not go against some of this must be condemned cast out and called Schismaticks by these notorious Schismaticks If he hold to Christ the Universal Head of the Church and will not be subject or sworn to the Pope the Usurping Head he shall be taken as cut off from Christ. And there is no certainty among these men what measure of faith and worship and obedience to them shall be judged necessary to constitute a Church-member For as that which served in the Apostles dayes and the following ages will not serve now nor the subscribing to all the other pretended Councils until then will not serve without subscribing to the Creed or Council of Trâ—nt so no body can tell what New Faith or Worship or Test of Christianity the next Council if the world see any more may require and how many thousand that are Trent-Catholicks now may be judged Hereticks or Schismaticks then if they will not shut their eyes and follow them any whither and change their Religion as oft as the Papal interest requireth a change Of this Chillingworth Hales and Dr. H. More have spoken plainly If the Pope had imposed but one lye Dâ— H. More saith Myst. Redemp p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any Church in Christâ—ndome at this day that doth not obtrude not only falshood but such falsehoods that will appear to any free Spirit pure contradictiors and impossibilities and that with the same gravity authority and importunity that they do the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be sad For what knowing and conscientious man but will be driven off if he cannot assert the truth without open asserting of a gross lye Id. p. â—26 And as for Opinions though some may be better than other some yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick rights supposing there be no venome of the persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professeth the faith of Christ and believeth the Scriptures in the Historical sense c. to be subscribed or one sin to be done and said All Nations and persons that do not this are no Christians or shall have no communion with the Church the man that refuseth that imposed lye or sin is guiltless of the Schism and doth but obey God and save his soul And the Usurper that imposeth them will be found the heinous Schismatick before God and the cause of all those Divisions of the Church And so if any private Sectary shall feign an opinion or practice of his own to be necessary to salvation or Church communion and shall refuse communion with those that are not of his mind and way it is he and not they that is the cause of the uncharitable separation * See Hales of Schisme p. 8. § 84. Direct 7. Pray against the Usurpations or intrusions of intrusions of impious carnal ambitious Direct 7. covetous Pastors into the Churches of Christ. For one wicked man in the place of a Pastor may do more In Ecclesiâ—s plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei magâ—sque pugnatur fere de Apolline Petro Paulo quam de Christo Retine divina Relinque humana Bucholcer to the increase of a Schism or faction than many private men can do And carnal men have carnal minds and carnal interests which are both unreconcileable to the spiritual holy mind and interest For the
indeed preach Christ of envy and strife and some of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds but the other of love c. Here is an odious vice in the publick Ministry even an endeavour to increase the sufferings of the Apostle yet it was lawful to hear such preachers though not to prefer them before better Most sects among Christians are possessed with a tang of envy and uncharitableness against dissenters which useth to break forth in their preaching and praying and yet it is lawful to joyn with such 2. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath many defects and infirmities in his Ministration or manner of Worship As if he preach with some ignorance disorder unfit expressions or gestures unmeet repetitions or if he do the like in Prayer or in the Sacraments putting something last that should be first and leaving out something that should be said or praying coldly and formally These and such like are faults which we should do our best to reform and we should not prefer such a Ministry before a better but it is lawful and a duty to joyn with such when we have no better For all men are imperfect and therefore the manner of Worship as performed by them will be imperfect Imperfect men cannot be perfect in their Ministrations We must joyn with a defective and imperfect mode of Worship or joyn with none on earth And we must perform such or none our selves Which of you dare say that in your private prayers you have no disorder vain repetitions flatness or defects 3. It is not unlawful to joyn with a Minister that hath some material errour or untruth in his preaching or praying so be it we be not called to approve it or make it ours and so it be not pernicious and destructive to the ends of his Ministry For all men have some errour and they that have them may be expected sometime to vent them And it is not our presence that is any signification of our consent to their mistakes If we run away from all that vent any untruth or mistake in publick or private Worship we shall scarce know what Church or person we may hold Communion with The Reason of this followeth § 93. 3. The sense of the Church and all its members is to be judged of by their publick professions and not by such words of a Minister which are his own and never had their consent I am by Profession a Christian and the Scripture is the Professed Rule of my Religion And when I go to the Assemblies I profess to Worship God according to that Rule I profess my self a hearer of a Minister of the Gospel that is to Preach the Word of God and that hath promised in his Ordination out of the holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to his charge and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which he shall be perswaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture This he professed when he was ordained and I profess by my presence only to hear such a Preacher of the Gospel and Worship God with him in those Ordinances of Worship which God hath appointed If now this man shall drop in any mistake in Preaching or modifie his prayers or administrations amiss and do his part weakly and disorderly the hearers are no way guilty of it by their presence For if I must run away from Gods publick worship because of mens mis-performance 1. I should joyn with none on Earth For a small sin may no more be wilfully done or owned than a greater 2. And then another mans weakness may disoblige me and discharge me from my duty To order and word his Prayers and Preaching aright is part of the Ministers own work and not the peoples And if he do it well it is no commendation to me that am present but to himself And therefore if he do it amiss it is no fault of mine or dispraise to me but to himself If the Common-Council of London or the Court of Aldermen agree to Petition the King for the Renewing of their Charter and commit the expressing of their request to their Recorder in their presence If he Petition for something else instead of that which he was intrusted with and so betray them in the substance of his business they are openly to contradict him and disown his treachery or mistake But if he deliver the same Petition which he undertook with stammering disorder defectiveness and perhaps some mixture of untruths in his additional reasons and discourse this is his failing in the personal performance of his duty and no way imputable to them that sent him and are present with him though in modesty they are silent and speak not to disown it For how can it be their fault that a man is wanting in his personal sufficiency and duty unless it be that they chose not a better And whether he speak ex tempore or more deliberately in a written form or without in words that other men taught him or wrote for him or in words of his own devising it altereth not their case § 94. Obj. But if a man fail through weakness in his own performance I know not of that before Obj. Of imposed defective Liturgies hand But if his faulty manner of praying be prescribed and imposed on him by a Law then I know it before hand and therefore am guilty of it Answ. To avoid confusion fix upon that which you think is the thing sinful 1. Either it is because the Prayers are defective and faulty 2. Or because they are imposed 3. Or because you know the fault before hand But none of all these can prove your joyning with them sinful 1. Not â—â—â—â— hominâ—â— est facere quod potest â—â—aâ—rsi nâ—n â—aâ—â—at hâ—â— quod est â—â— gâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— because they are faulty for you may joyn with as faulty prayers you confess if not imposed 2. Not because imposed 1. Because that is an extenuation and not an aggravation For it proveth the Minister less-voluntary of the two than those are that do it without any command through the errour of their own judgements as most erroneous persons will 2. Because though lawful things oft become unlawful when superiours forbid them yet no reason can be given why a Lawful 〈◊〉 â—â— thing should become unlawful because a lawful superiour doth command iâ— Else superiours might take away all our Christian liberty and make all things unlawful to us by commanding thâ—m You would take it for a wilde conceit in your Children or servants if they say when you bid them learn a Catechism or use a form of Prayer It was lawful to us till you commanded us to do it but because you bid us do it it is unlawful If it be a duty to obey Governours in all lawful things then it is not a sin to obey them 3. And it is not your
men were before when once they converse together and grow acquainted they are more reconciled The reason is partly because they find less evil and more good in one another than before they did believe to be in them and partly because uncharitableness and malice being an ugly monster is bolder at a distance but ashamed of it self before your face And therefore the pens of the Champions of malice are usually more bitter than their tongues when they speak to you face to face Of all the furious adversaries that have raged against me in the later part of my life I remember not one enemy that I have or ever had that was ever familiar or acquainted with me And I have my self heard ill reports of many which by personal acquaintance I have found to be all false Keep together and either silence your differences or gently debate them yea rather chide it out than withdraw asunder Familiarity feedeth Love and Unity § 106. Direct 23. When ever you look at any corruption in the Church look also at the contrary exâ—râ—am Direct 23. and see and avoid the danger of one as well as of the other Be sure every error and Church-corruption hath its extream And if you do not see it and the danger of it you are the liker to run into it Look well on both sides if you would be safe § 107. Direct 24. Worship God your selves in the purest manner and under the most edifying Ministry Direct 24. that lawfully you can attain but be not too forward to condemn others that reach not to your measure or attain not so much happiness And deny not personal communion sometimes with Churches that are more blemished and fit for Communion And when you cannot joyn locally with them let them have the communion of your Hearts in faith and charity and prayer for each other I fear not here openly to tell the world that if I were turned loose to my own liberty I would ordinarily worship God in that manner that I thought most pure and agreeable to his Will and Word but I would sometimes go to the Churches of other Christians that were fit for Christian communion if there were such about me Sometime to the Independants sometime to the moderate Anabaptists sometime to such as had a Liturgie as faulty as that of the Greek or the Ethiopian Churches to shew by my practice what communion my heart hath with them all § 108. Direct 25. Take heed that you interess not Religion or the Church in Civil differences This Direct 25. error hath divided and ruined many famous Churches and most injuriously made the holy truth and worship of God to be a reproach and infamy among selfish partial carnal men When Princes and Since the writing of this I have published a Book called The Curt of Church-Divistoâ—s and a Defence of it which handle these things more fully States fall out among themselves they will needs draw the Ministers to their sides and then one side will certainly condemn them and call them all that self-interest and malice can invent And commonly when the controversie is only in point of Law or Politicks it is Religion that bears the blame of all and the differences of Lawyers and Statesmen must be charged upon Divines that the Devil may be able to make them useless as to the good of all that party that is against them and may make Religion it self be called Rebellion And O that God would maintain the Peace of Kingdoms and Kings and Subjects were all Lovers of peace the rather because the differences in States do cause so commonly divisions in the Church It would make a man wonder and a lover of History to lament to observe in the differences between the Pope and Henry the fourth and other Emperours how the Historians are divided one half commending him that the other half condemneth and how the Bishops and Churches were one half for the Pope and the other for the Emperour and one half still accounted Rebels or Schismaticks by the other though they were all of one Religion It is more to ruine the Church than Kingdoms that Satan laboureth so much to kindle Warrs and breed Civil differences in the world And therefore let him that loveth the Churches Peace be an obedient Subject and an enemy of Sedition and a Lover and defender of the Civil Peace and Government in the place that God hath set him in For this is pleasing unto God § 109. I know there are some that with too bloody and calamitous success have in most ages given other kind of Directions for the extirpation of Error Heresie and Schism than I have here given But God hath still caused the most wise and holy and charitable and experienced Christians Bâ—â—a Hist. Ecâ—lâ—sâ—â—ib 1. cap. 26. Didicerat enim Rex Edilberth a Doctoribut auctoribusque suae salutis servitium Christi voluntarium non coactitium debeâ—e esse to bear their testimony against them And he hath ever caused their way of cruelty to turn to their own shame And though like Treasons and Robberies it seem for the time present to serve their turn it is bitterness in the end and leaveth a stinking memorial of their names and actions to posterity And the Treatises of Reconcilers such as our Halls Ushers Bergius Burroughs and many other by the delectable savour of Unity and Charity are sweet and acceptable to prudent and peaâ—â—able persons though usually unsuccessful with the violent that needed them Besides the fore-cited witness of Sr. Francis Bacon c. I will here add one of the most antient and one or two of this age whom the contrary-minded do mention with the greatest honour Iustin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. doth at large give his judgement that a Judaizing Christian who thinketh it best to be circumciâ—â—d and keep the Law of Moses be suffered in his opinion and practice and admitted to the communion and priviledges of the Church and loved as one that may be saved in that way so be it he do not make it his business to perswade others to his way and teach it as necessary to salvation or communion For such he doth condemn King Iames by the Pen of Is. Causabone telleth Cardinal du Perron that His Majesty thinketh that for Concord there is no nearer way than diligently to separate things necessary from the unnecessary and to bestow all our labour that we may agree in the things necessary and that in things unnecessary there may be place given for Christian Liberty The King calleth these things simply necessary which either the Word of God expresly commandeth to be believed or done or which the antient Church did gather from the Word of God by necessary consequence Grotius Annot. in Matth. 13. 41. is so full and large upon it that I must intreat the Reader to peruse his own words where by arguments and authority he-vehemently rebuketh the Spirit of fury cruelty and uncharitableness which
withdrew from the accusation as tending to their own confusion And Severus saith Certe Ithacium nihil pensi nihil sancti habuisse definio fuit enim audax loquax impudens sumptuosus ventri gulae plurimum impertiens Hic stultitiae eo usque processerat ut omnes etiam sanctos viros quibus aut studium inerat lectionis aut propositum erat certare jejuniis tanquam Priscilliani socios discipulos in erimen arcesseret Ausus etiam Miser est Martino Episcopo viro plane Apostolis conferendo palam objectare haeresis infamiam quia non desinebat inâ—repare Ithacium ut ab accusatione desisteret And when the Leaders were put to death the Heresie increased more and honoured Priscillian as a Martyr and reproached the Orthodox as wicked persecuters And the end was that the Church was filled by it with divisions and manifold mischiefs and all the most godly made the common scorn Inter haec plebs Dei optimus quisque probro atque ludibrio habebatur They are the last words of Severus's History And changing the names are calculated for another Meridian and for later years CHAP. IX How to behave our selves in the publick Assemblies and the worship there performed and after them See my Treaâ— of the Lords day and my Cure of Church-Div I Have purposely given such particular Directions in Tom. 2. on this subject and written so many Books about it and said so much also in the Cases of Conscience that I shall here only cast in a few common Directions lest the Reader think I make a bawk Direct 1. Let your preparations in secret and in your family on the beginning of the Direct 1. Lords dayes be such as conduce to fit you for the publick Worship Run not to Church as ungodly Eccl. 5. 1 2 3 4. people do with a carnal heart that never sought God before you went nor considered what you go about As if all your Religion were to make up the number of the auditors and you 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Prov. 1. 20. to the end thought God must not be worshipped and obeyed at home but only in the Church God may in mercy meet with an unprepared heart and open his eyes and heart and save him But he hath made no promise of it to any such He that goeth to Worship that God at Church whom he forgetteth and despiseth in his heart and house may expect to be despised by him O consider what it is for a sinner that must shortly die to go with the servants of God to worship him to pray for his salvation and to hear what God hath to say to him by his Minister for the life of his immortal soul Direct 2. Enter not into the holy Assembly either superstitiously or unreverently Not as if Direct 2. the bending of the knee and mumbling over a few words with a careless ignorant mind and spending an hour there as carelesly would save your souls Nor yet as if the Relation which the worship the worshippers and the dedicated Place have unto God deserved not a special honour and regard Though God be ever with us every where yet every Time and Place and person and business is not equally Related to God And Holiness is no unfit attribution for that Company or that Place which is Related to God though but by the lawful separation and dedication of man To be uncovered in those Countreys where uncovering signifieth Reverence is very well becoming a reverent soul except when the danger of cold forbids it It is an unhappy effect of our Contentions that many that seem most reverent and holy in their high regard of holy things do yet carry themselves with more unreverent deportment than those that themselves account prophane God is the God of Soul and Body and must be worshipped by both And while they are united the actions of one are helpful to the other as well as due and decent Direct 3. If you can come at the beginning that you may shew your attendance upon God and Direct 3. your esteem of all his worship Especially in our Assemblies where so great a part of the duty as Confession Praises Reading the Scriptures are all at the beginning And it is meet that you thereby shew that you prefer publick worship before private and that needless businesses keep you not away Direct 4. If you are free and can do it lawfully choose the most able holy Teacher that you can Direct 4. have and be not indifferent whom you hear For O how great is the difference and how bad are our hearts and how great our necessity of the clearest doctrine and the Livelyest helps Nor be you indifferent what manner of people you joyn with nor what manner of worship is there performed But in all choose the Best when you are free But where you are not free or can have no better refuse not to make use of weaker Teachers or to communicate with faulty Congregations in a defective faulty manner of worship so be it you are not compelled to sin And think not that all the faults of the Prayers or Communicants are imputed to all that joyn with them in that worship For then we should joyn with none in all the World Direct 5. When the Minister is weak be the more watchful against prejudice and sluggishness of Direct 5. heart lest you lose all Mark that Word of God which he readeth to you and reverence and Love and lay up that It was the Law Read and meditated on which David saith the Godly do delight Psal. 1. 2 3. Psal. 12. 6 7. 19. 7 8 9. in The sacred Scriptures are not so obscure and useless as the Papists do pretend but convert the soul and are able to make us wise unto salvation Christ went ordinarily to the Synagogues where even bad men did read Moses and the Prophets every Sabbath day There are thousands that cannot Read themselves who must come to the Assembly to hear that word read which they cannot read or hear at home Every sentence of Scripture hath a divine excellency and therefore had we nothing but the Reading of it and that by a bad man a holy soul may profit by it Direct 6. Mind not so much the case of others present as your selves And think not so much how Direct 6. bad such and such a one is and unworthy to be there as how bad you are your selves and unworthy of communion with the people of the Lord and what a mercy it is that you have admittance and are not cast out from those holy opportunities Direct 7. Take heed of a pievish quarrelsome humour that disposeth you to carp at all that 's said Direct 7. and done and to find fault with every mode and circumstance and to affect a causless singularity as thinking that your own wayes and words and orders are far more excellent than other mens Think ill of nothing out of
a quarrelsome disposition but only as evidence constraineth you to dissent And then remember that we are all imperfect and faulty men must needs perform a faulty worship if any For it cannot be better than the agent Direct 8. When you meet with a word in a Sermon or Prayer which you do not like let it not Direct 8. stop you and hinder your fervent and peaceable proceeding in the rest as if you must not joyn in that which is good if there be any faulty mixture in it But go on in that which you approve and thank God that pardoneth the infirmities of others as well as your own Direct 9. Conform your selves to all the Lawful gestures and customes of the Church with which Direct 9. you joyn You come not thither proudly to shew the Congregation that you are wiser in the circumstances of worship than they nor needlesly to differ from them much less to harden men into a scorn of strictness by seeing you place Religion in singularities in lawful and indifferent things But you come to exercise Love peace and Concord and with one mind and mouth to glorifie God Stand when the Church standeth sit when the Church sitteth kneel when the Church kneeleth in cases where God doth not forbid it Direct 10. Take heed of a customary formal sensless heart that tolerateth it self from day to day Direct 10. to do holy things in a common manner and with a common dull and careless mind For that is to prophane them Call in your Thoughts when they attempt to wander stir up your hearts when you feel them dull Remember what you are about and with whom it is that you have to do and that you tread on the dust of them who had such opportunities before you which are now all gone and so will yours You hear and pray for more than your lives Therefore do it not as in jeast or as asleep Direct 11. Do all in faith and Hope Believe what you may get of God in prayer and by an Direct 11. obedient hearing of his word Would you not go cheerfully to the King if he had promised you to grant whatever you ask Hath not God promised you more than Kings can give you Oh it is an unbelieving and a despairing heart that turneth all into dead formality Did you but Hope that God would do all that for you which he hath told you he will do and that you might get more by prayer than by your trades or projects or all your friends you would go to God with more earnestness and more delight Direct 12. Apply all the Word of God to your selves according to its usefulness Ask as you Direct 12. go How doth this concern me this reproof this mark this counsel this comfort this exhortation this direction Remember as much as you can but especially the most practical useful parts Get it home so deep upon your hearts that it may not easily slide away Root it by close application as you go that affection may constrain you to remember it Direct 13. Above all Resolve to obey what God shall make known to be his will Take heed lest Direct 13. any wilful sin should escape the power of the Word and should ordinarily go away with you as it Act. 10. 33. 1 Sam. 3. 9 10. Prov. 8. 34. Ezek. â—3 4. Psal. 66. 18. Psal. 5. 5. Dan. 4. 27. Prov. 10. 29. 28. 9. Psal. 50. 16 17 18. 125. 5. 1 Sam. 15. 22. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Mat. 7. 23 Luk. 13. 2â— Joh. 1â— 3 4 27. came Careless hearing and careless living tend most dangerously to a hardened heart and a forsaken state If you regard iniquity in your heart God will not hear your prayers The sacrifice of the wicked is abominable to him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity He that turneth away his ear from hearing that is obeying the Law even his prayer is abominable To the wicked saith God What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and hast cast my words behind thee Obedience is better than sacrifice He that nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity or else God will not find his mark upon him nor take him to be one of his Christs sheep know his voice and follow him and to them he will give eternal life But if you had Preacht or done miracles in his name he will say to you Depart from me I know you not if ye be workers of iniquity Look therefore to your foot to your heart and life when you go to the house of God and be more ready to hear his Law that must govern you that you may know his will and do it than to offer the sacrifice of fools that is disobedient sinners that think by sacrifices and outside worship to get pardon for an unholy life and to reconcile God to them in their sins not knowing that thus they add sin to sin Eccleâ— â— â— 2 3 4. If you seek God daily and delight to know his wayes as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God If you ask of him the ordinances of justice sound doctrine regular worship strict discipline and take delight in approaching to God If you humble your Isa. 5â— 1 2 3. souls with frequent fasts and yet live in a course of wilful disobedience you labour in vain and aggravate your sins and Preachers had need to lift up their voices and be lowder Trumpets to tell you of your sins than to other men But if ye will wash you and make you clean and put away the evil of your doings cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed c. Isa. 1. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. You may then come with boldness and confidence unto God Otherwise to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices your oblations will be vain and your incense abominable If ye be wilâ—ing and obedient you shall be blessed but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be destroyed for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it If you do well shall you not be accepted but if ye do evil Gen. 4. 7. Prov. 14. 34. Num. 32. 23. sin lyeth at the door Let your profession be never so great and your parts and expressions never so Scraphical sin is a reproach to any people And if you would hid your selves from justice in the purest Church among the holiest people and the most numerous and longest prayers be sure that your sin will find you out Your secret lust your covetous over-reaching your secret gluttony or Jam 1. 22. â—â—m 2. 13. tipling much more your crimson sins will surely find you out Alas what â—hen will those miscreants do whose sins are scarlet bloody persecutions under pretence Ezek. 7. 19. Jâ—r 7. 23. 11. 4
place 2. And great haste allowed me not Time to transpose them If you say that in such a work I should take time I answer You are no competent judges unless you knew me and the rest of my work and the likelyhood that my time will be but short They that had rather take my Writings with such defects which are the effects of haste than have none of them may use them and the rest are free to despise them and neglect them Two or three Questions about the Scripture I would have put nearer the beginning if I could have time But seeing I cannot it 's easie for you to transpose them in the reading III. The resolution of these Cases so much avoideth all the extreams that I look they should be displeasing to all that vast number of Christians who involve themselves in the opinions and interests of their several sects as such and that hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons But there will be still a certain number of truly Catholick impartial Readers whose favourable acceptance I confidently prognosticate and who being out of the dust and noise and passions of contending sides and parties and their interests will see a self-evidencing Light in those solutions which are put off here briefly without the pomp of formal argumentation or perswading Oratory The eternal Light reveal himself to us by Christ who is the Light of the World and by the Illumination of the spirit and word of Light that we may walk in the Light as the Children of Light till we come to the World of Glorious Everlasting Light And what other defect soever our knowledge have if any man hath knowledge enough to kindle in him the Love of God the same is known of Him and therefore is Beloved by Him and shall be Blessed with and in Him for ever 1 Cor. 8. 1 2 3. CASES OF CONSCIENCE ABOUT Matters Ecclesiastical Quest. 1. How to know which is the true Church among all pretenders that a Christians Conscience may be quiet in his Relation and Communion I HAVE written so much of this already in four Books viz. one called The Safe Religion another called A Key for Catholicks another called The Visibility of the Church another called A true Catholick and the Catholick Church described that I shall say now but a little and yet enough to an impartial considerate Reader The terms must first be opened 1. By a Church is meant a Society of Christians as such And it is sometimes taken Narrowly for the Body or Members as distinct from the Head as the word Kingdom is taken for the Subjects only as distinct from the King And sometimes more fully and properly for the whole Political Society as constituted of its Head and Body or the Pars Imperans pars Subdita 2. The word Church thus taken signifieth sometime the Universal Church called Catholick which consisteth of Christ and his Body Politick or Mystical And sometime some Part only of the Universal Church And so it is taken either for a subordinate Political Part or for a Community or a Part considered as Consociate but not Political or as many particular Political Churches Agreeing and holding Concord and Communion without any Comon Head save the Universal Head 3. Such Political Churches are either of Divine Constitution and Policy or only of Humane 2. By Christians I mean such as Profess the Essentials of the Christian Religion For we speak of the Church as Visible 3. By True may be meant either Reality of Essence opposite to that which is not really a 1 Cor. 11. 3. 1 Cor. 12 12. Eph. 1. 22 23. 1 Cor. 6 15. 1 Cor. 12. 27. Eph. 4. 4 5. Matth. 28. 19 20. Church in this univocal acception or else Sound and Orthodox in the Integrals as opposite to erroneous and defiled with much enormity And now I thus decide that question Prop. 1. The True Catholick Church consisteth of Christ the Heâ—d and all Christians as his Body or the Members As the Kingdom consisteth of the King and his Subjects Prop. 2. As all the sincere Heart-Covenanters make up the Church as regenerate and mystical or invisible so that all that are Christened that is Baptized and profess Consent to all the Essentials of the Baptismal Covenant not having Apostatized nor being by lawful Power Excommunicated are Christians and make up the Church as Visible Prop. 3. Therefore there is but One Universal Church because it containeth all Christians and so Ephes. 4 4 5. 1 Cor. 1â— 12. Mark 16 16. Rom 14. 1 6 7. 15. 1 3 4 leaveth out none to be the matter of another Prop. 4. It is not Ignorance or Error about the meer Integrals of Christianity which maketh them no Christians who hold the Essentials that is the Baptismal Covenant Prop. 5. That the Baptismal Covenant might be rightly understood and professed the Churches have still used the Creed as the explication of the Covenant in point of faith and taken it for 1 Cor. 15 1 2 c. the Symbol of the Christian Belief And no further profession of faith was or is to be required as Matth. 28. 19 20. necessary to the Being of Christianity Prop. 6. If proud Usurpers or Censurers take on them to excommunicate or unchristian or unchurch others without authority and cause this maketh them not to be no Christians or no Churches Rom. 14. 3 4. John that are so used Prop. 7. Therefore to know which is the true Catholick or Universal Church is but to know who Rom. 6 1 2 c. are Baptized-Professing-Christians Prop. 8. The Reformed Churches the Lutherans the Abassines the Copties the Syrians the Armenians Ephes. 4. 4. 5. the Jacobites the Georgians the Maronites the Greeks the Moscovites and the Romanists do all receive Baptism in all its visible Essentials and profess all the Essentials of the Christian Religion though not with the same Integrity Prop. 9. He that denyeth any one essential part in it self is so a Heretick as to be no Christian nor true member of the Church if it be justly proved or notorious that is none ought to take him Tit. 3. â—â— 3 John for a Visible Christian who know the proof of his denying that essential part of Christianity or to whom it is notorious Prop. 10. He that holdeth the Essentials primarily and with them holdeth some error which by James 3 â— Phi. 3. 15 16. Heb. 5. 1 2. unseen consequence subverteth some Essential point but holdeth the Essentials so much faster that he would forsake his error if he saw the inconsistence is a Christian notwithstanding And if the name Heretick be applicable to him it is but in such a sense as is consistent with Christianity Prop. 11. He that is judged a Heretick and no Christian justly by others must be lawfully T it 3. 10. Matth. 18. 15. cited and heard plead his Cause and be judged upon sufficient proof and not
inconsistent with Christianity or the Essentials of the Ministry we may well presume of many of them they would not receive it Therefore as an error which consequentially contradicteth some essential article of faith nullifieth not his Christianity who first and fastest holdeth the faith and would cast away the error if he saw the contradiction as Davenant Morton and Hall have shewed Epist. Conciliat So is it to be said as to practical error in the present case They are their grievous errors and sins but for ought I see do not nullifie their office to the Church As a Mass-Priest he is no Minister of Christ As an Anabaptist is not as a Rebaptizer nor a Separatist as a Separater nor an Antinomian or any erroneous person as a Preacher of that error But as a Christian Pastor ordained to preach the Gospel baptize administer the Lords Supper pray praise God guide the Church he may be The same answer serveth to the Objection as it extendeth to the erroneous Doctrines which they preach which are but by Consequence against the Essentials of Religion 2. But it is a greater doubt Whether any power of the Ministry can be conveyed by Antichrist or from him And whether God will own any of Antichrists administrations Therefore seeing they profess themselves to have no office but what they receive from the Pope and Christ disowning his usurpation the same man cannot be the Minister of Christ and Antichrist as the same man cannot be an officer in the Kings Army and his Enemies But this will have the same solution as the former If this Antichrist were the open professed enemy to Christ then all this were true Because their corrupt additions would not by dark consequences but so directly contain the denyal of Christianity or the true Ministry that it were not possible to hold both But as our Divines commonly note Antichrist is to sit in the Temple of God and the Popes Treason is under pretence of the greatest service and friendship to Christ makeing himself his Vicar General without his Commission So that they that receive power from him do think him to be Christs Vicar indeed and so renounce not Christ but profess their first and chief relation to be to him and dependance on him and that they would have nothing to do with the Pope if they knew him to be against Christ. And some of them write that the Power or Office is immediately from Christ and that the Pope Ordainers and Electors do but design the person that shall receive it Because else they know not what to say of the Election and Consecration of the Pope himself who hath no superiour And the Spanish Bishops in the Council of Trent held so close to this that the rest were fain to leave it undetermined so that it is no part of their Religion but a doubtful opinion Whether the power of Bishops be derived from the Pope though they be Governed by him But as to the other the case seemeth like this If a subject in Ireland usurp the Lieutenancy and tell all the people that he hath the Kings Commission to be his Lieutenant and command all to submit to him and receive their places from him and obey him And the King declareth him a Traytor antecedently only by the description of his Laws and maketh it the duty of the subjects to renounce him Those now that know the Kings will and yet adhere to the Usurper though they know that the King is against it are Traytors with him But those from whom he keepeth the knowledge of the Laws and who for want of full information believe him to be really the Kings Lieutenant and specially living where all believe it but yet would renounce him if they knew that he had not the Kings Commission These are the Kings subjects though in ignorance they obey an Usurper And on this account it is that A. Bishop Usher concluded that An ignorant Papist might be saved but the Learned hardly But when the Learned through the disadvantages of their Education are under the same ignorance being Learned but on one side to their greater seduction the case may be the same The same man therefore may receive an Office from Christ who yet ignorantly submitteth to the Pope and receiveth corrupt additions from him But suppose I be mistaken in all this yet to come to the second Question II. Whether Baptism and Ordination given by them be Nullities I answer no on a further account 1. Because that the Ministry which is a nullity to the receiver that is God will punish him Matâ—h 7. 23 24 2â— as an Usurper may yet perform those Ministerial Acts which are no Nullities to the Church Else Phil. 1. 15 16 17. how confused a case would all Churches be in For it is hard ever to know whether Ministers have all things essential to their Office Suppose a man be ignorant or an Heretick against some essential Mark 9. 40. Article of faith or suppose that he feigned Orders of Ordination when he had none or that he was ordained by such as really had no power to do it or suppose he pretended the consent of the majority of the people when really the greater part were for another If all thâ—s be unknown his Baptizing and other administrations are not thereby made Nullities to the Church though they be sins in him The Reason is because that the Church shall not suffer nor lose her right for another mans sin When the fault is not theirs the loss and punishment shall not be theirs He that is found in possession of the place performeth valid administration to them that know not his usurpation and are not guilty of it Otherwise we should never have done Re-baptizing nor know easily when we receive any valid administrations while we are so disagreed about the Necessaries of the Office and Call and when it is so hard in all things to judge of the Call of all other men 2. And as the Papists say that a private man or woman may baptize in extremity so many Learned Protestants think that though a private mans Baptism be a sin yet it is no nullity though he were known to be no Minister And what is said of Baptism to avoid tediousness you may suppose said of Ordination which will carry the first case far as to the Validity of the Ministry received by Papists Ordination as well as of Baptism and Visible Christianity received by them For my part God used Parsons Book of Resolution corrected so much to my good and I have known so many eminent Christians and some Ministers converted by it that I am glad that I hear none make a controversie of it whether the conversion faith or Love to God be valid which we receive by the Books or means of any Papist Quest. 4. Whether it be necessary to believe that the Pope is the Antichrist IT is one question Whether he be Antichrist and another Whether it be necessary
3. Else there should be seldome any Church in the world for want of a Head yea never any For I have proved there and to Iohnson that there never was a true General Council of the Universal See also in my Reasons of Christian Religion Coâ—s 2. of the Interest of the Church Church But only Imperial Councils of the Churches under one Emperours power and those that having been under it had been used to such Councils And that it is not a thing ever to be attempted or expected as being unlawful and morally impossible Quest. 13. Whether there be such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church And what it is THe Antients differently used the terms A Catholick Church and The Catholick Church By the first they meant any particular Church which was part of the Universal By the second 1 Cor. 12. 12. and throughout they meant the Universal Church it self And this is it that we now mean And I answer Affirmatively There is a Visible Universal Church not only as a Community or as a Kingdom distinct from the King but as a Political Society 2. This Church is the Universality of Baptized Visible Christians Headed by Iesus Christ himself Eph. 4. 1 5 6 7 16. There is this and there is no other upon earth The Papists say that this is no Visible Church because the Head is not Visible I answer 1. It is not necessary that he be seen but visible And is not Christ a Visible person 2. This Church consisteth of two parts the Triumphant part in Glory and the Militant part And Christ is not only Visible but seen by the triumphant part As the King is not seen by the ten thousandth part of his Kingdoms but by his Courtiers and those about him and yet he is King of all 3. Christ was seen on earth for above thirty years and the Kingdom may be called visible in that the King was once visible on earth and is now visible in Heaven As if the King would shew himself to his people but one year together in all his life 4. It ill becometh the Papists of any men to say that Christ is not visible who make him see him taste him handle him eat him drink him digest him in every Church in every Mass throughout the year and throughout the world And this not as divided but as whole Christ. Object But this is not quatenus Regent Answ. If you see him that is Regent and see his Laws and Gospel which are his Governing instruments together with his Ministers who are his Officers it is enough to denominate his Kingdom visible 5. The Church might be fitly denominated Visible secundum quid if Christ himself were invisible Because the Politick Body is visible the dispersed Officers Assemblies and Laws are visible But sure all these together may well serve for the denomination Quest. 14. What is it that maketh a Visible Member of the Universal Church And who are to be accounted such 1. BAptism maketh a Visible member of the Universal Church and the Baptized as to entrance Matth. 28. 19. 〈…〉 1â— 16. unless they go out again are to be accounted such 2. By Baptism we mean open devotion or dedication to God by the Baptismal Covenant in which the adult for themselves and Parents for their Infants do Profess Consent to the Covenant of Grace which includeth a Belief of all the Essential Articles of the faith and a Resolution for sincere obedience and a Consent to the Relations between God and us viz. that he be our Reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier 3. The Continuance of this Consent is necessary to the continuance of our visible membership 4. He that through ignorance or incapacity for want of water or a Minister is not baptized and yet is solemnly or notoriously dedicated and devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same Covenant though without the outward Sign and professeth openly the same Religion is a visible Christian though not by a compleat and regular visibility As a Souldier not listed nor taking his Colours or a Marriage not regularly solemnized c. 5. He that forsaketh his Covenant by Apostacy or is totally and duly excommunicated ceaseth to be a visible member of the Church Quest. 15. Whether besides the Profession of Christianity either Testimony or Evidence of Conversion or Practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a Member of the Universal Visible Church 1. AS the Mediator is the way to the Father sent to recover us to God so Christianity includeth John 14. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6 3 11. Godliness And he professeth not Christianity who professeth not Godliness 2. He that professeth the Baptismal Covenant professeth Christianity and Godliness and true Conversion 2 Pet. 1. 3. And therefore cannot be rejected for want of a Profession of Conversion or Godliness 3. But he that is justly suspected not to understand his own profession but to speak general words without the sense may and ought to be examined by him that is to baptize him And therefore though the Apostles among the Jews who had been bred up among the Oracles of God did justly presume of so much understanding as that they baptized men the same day that they professed to believe in Christ yet when they baptized converted Gentiles we have reason to think that they Acts 2. 38 39. first received a particular account of their Converts that they understood the three essential Articles of the Covenant 1. Because the Creed is fitted to that use and hath been ever used thereunto by the Churches as by tradition from the Apostles practice 2. Because the Church in all ages as far as Church History leadeth us upward hath used catechising before baptizing yea and to keep men as Catechumens some time for preparation 3. Because common experience telleth us that multititudes can say the Creed that understand it not If any yet urge the Apostles example I will grant that it obligeth us when the case is the like And I will not fly to any conceit of their heart-searching or discerning mens sincerity When you bring us to a people that before were the Visible Church of God and were all their life time trained up in the knowledge of God of sin of duty of the promised Messiah according to all the Law and Prophets and want nothing but to know the Son and the Holy Ghost that this Iesus is the Christ who will reconcile us to God and give us the sanctifying Spirit then we will also baptize men the same day that they profess to believe in Iesus Christ and in the Father as reconciled by him and the Holy Ghost as given by him But if we have those to deal with who know not God or sin or misery or Scripture Prophecies no nor natural verities we know no proof that the Apostles so haâ—â—ily baptized such Of this I have largely spoken in my Treatise of Confirmation 4. It is
of Psal. 23. 5. 92. 10. theirs but by former custome of the Countreys where they lived As 1. Anointing Luke 7. 46. Matth. 6. 17. Amos 6. 6. Psal. 89. 20. Lev. 16. 32. Luke 16. in Iudaea was like Bathing at Rome It was taken in those scorching Countreys for a wholsome and easing and comforting thing And therefore used to refresh the weary limbs of travellers and to comfort the sick 2. And it was the long accustomed Ceremony also used on Officers accounted sacred Kings and Priests who were anointed at their entrance and investiture 3. White Cloathing and Purple were then and there taken for the noblest attire Not appropriated Rev. 3 4 5. Thâ—y shall walk with me in white to sacred things and persons but as Scarlet lately in England the garb only of great men On which account not as a Sacred Vestment but as an honourable cloathing when the Bishops began to be advanced they were allowed to wear White Cloathing not only when they officiated but at other times 4. The Milk and Honey were there highly esteemed for food and accounted the character of the James 5. 14. Mark 6 13. Land of Promise 2. Hereupon by application the Churches used these signs in the Sacred Ordinance of baptism Not by new institution of the signification I say but by application of the old well known signification 3. As Natural Signs are commonly allowed to be applyed to holy things so signs whose signification is of old and commonly stated and well known by Agreement or Custome do seem in this not to be different from Natural Signs Such are all Words as signs of our minds No word signifying any thing Naturally but by Agreement or Custome only And such is kneeling in prayer and being uncovered and many the like About some of which Paul appealeth to the custome of the 1 Cor. 11. 16. Churches of God 4. It is most probable that these two things together brought in Anointing 1. The common use of Anointing then in both the foresaid Cases Common Refreshment and Sacred Investiture 2. And the mistake of all those Scripture Texts which command or mention Anointing Metaphorical Rev. 1. 6. 5. 10. 20. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. As 1 John 2. 27. The Anointing which you have received teacheth you all things Ezek. 16. 9. I washed thee I anointed thee with Oyl c. Psal. 105. 15. 1 Chron. 16. 22. Touch not mine anointed Rev. 3. 18. And withal reading that we are made Kings and Priests to God and a Royal Priesthood they thought this might be signified by the usual honourary signs of such as well as by words to be called such So that they took it as if in our age the baptized should be set in a Chair of State and sumptuously apparelled and a â—east made to solemnize it as they do at Weddings and the baptized person set at the upper end c. which are significant Actions and Ceremonies But they intended them not as new Sacraments or any part of the Sacrament but as a pompous celebration of the Sacrament by such additional ceremonial accidents 5. And you must remember that they lived among Infidels where their profession was made the common scorn which tempted them by such ostentation and pomp to seek to make it honourable and to shew that they so accounted it and to encourage those who were discouragable by the scorn On which account also they used the Cross and the Memorials of the Martyrs 6. Yet some yea many afterwards did seem to take the Anointing for a Sacramental Action When they read that the Laying on of hands was the sign of Giving the Holy Ghost as distinct from baptism and that the Spirit is called in Scripture the Anointing they joyned both together and made that which they now call the Sacrament of Confirmation 7. Whether the Anointing Milk and Honey and the White Garment were then sinful in themselves to the users I determine not But certainly they proved very ill by accident whilest at this door those numerous and unlawful Ceremonies have entered which have so troubled the Churches and corrupted Religion and among the Papists Greeks Armenians Abassines and many others have made the sauce to become the meat and the lace to go for cloathing and turned too much of Gods Worship into Imagery shadows and pompous shews Quest. 51. Whether it be necessary that they that are baptized in Infancy do solemnly at age renew and own their Baptismal Covenant before they have right to the state and priviledges of adult members And if they do not Whether they are to be numbered with Christians or Apostates Answ. 1. CHurch-membership is the same thing in Infants and in the Adult 2. Infants are naturally uncapable of doing all that in baptism which the adult must do As to understand profess c. themselves 3. The baptism of the Adult being the most compleat because of the maturity of the receivers is made the standing pattern in Scripture For God formeth his Ordinances to the most perfect ordinary receivers 4. Though an Infant be devoted acceptably to God by his Parents will yet when he is at age it must be done by his own will 5. Therefore a bare Infant title ceaseth when we come to age and the persons title ceaseth unless it be renewed by himself or his own Consent The reason is because the Conditions of his Infant Title then cease For his Parents will shall go for his no longer 6. Regularly and ad bene esse the transition out of the state of Infant-membership into the state of See the proofs of all in my Treatise of Co firmation Adult-membership should be very solemn and by an understanding personal owning of the Baptismal Covenant 7. There needeth no other proof of this than 1. That God in Scripture never gave adult persons title to his Covenant but by their own personal consent And at the first institution of baptism both went together Personal profession and baptism because the receivers were adult 2. And that Infants are capable of baptism but not of personal profession 3. Therefore though they are not to repeat baptism which was done before yet they are bound to make that profession at age which they never made before 8. Where this solemn Owning of their Covenant cannot be had by reason of Church corruptions and Magistrates prohibition there the persons ordinary joyning with the Church in the publick profession and worship is to be taken for an owning it 9. He that being baptized in infancy doth no way at full age own his Baptismal Covenant is to be taken for an Apostate 1. Because his Infant title ceaseth 2. And he notoriously violateth his Covenant 3. Because he can be no adult Christian that no way owneth Christ. 10. But this is to be understood of those that have opportunity For one in a Wilderness among Heathens only cannot joyn in publick Worship nor give testimony of his Christianity to the
as much as they can whether by Synods or other meet wayes of correspondency And though this be not a distinct Government it is a distinct mode of Governing Object But that there be Pastors with fixed Churches or Assemblies is not of the Law of Nature Answ. 1. Hath Christ no Law but the Law of Nature Wherein then differ the Christian Religion and the Heathenish 2. Suppose but Christ to be Christ and man to be what he is and Nature it self will tell us that this is the fittest way for ordering the Worship of God For Nature saith God must be solemnly and ordinarily worshipped and that qualified persons should be the official Guides in the performance And that people who need such conduct and private oversight besides should where they live have their own stated Overseers Object But particular Congregations are not de primaria intentione divina For if the whole world could joyn together in the publick Worship of God no doubt that would be properly a Church But particular Congregations are only accidental in reference to Gods intention of having a Church because of the Impossibility of all mens joyning together for Ordinances c. Answ. 1. The question with me is not whether they be of primary Intention but whether stated Churches headed with their proper Bishops or Pastors be not of Gods institution in the Scripture 2. This Objection confirmeth it and not denyeth it For 1. It confesseth that there is a necessity of joyning for Gods Worship 2. And an Impossibility that all the world should so joyn 3. But if the whole world could so joyn it would be properly a Church So that it confesseth that to be a society joyned for Gods publick Worship is to be properly a Church And we confess all this If all the world could be one family they might have one Master or one Kingdom they might have one King But when it is confessed that 1. A Natural Impossibility of an Universal Assembly necessitateth more particular assemblies 2. And that Christ hath instituted such actually in his Word what more can a considerate man require 3. I do not understand this distinction de primaria intentione divina and accidental c. The Primary Intention is properly of the Ultimate End only And no man thinketh that a Law de mediis of the means is no Law or that God hath made no Laws de mediis For Christ as a Mediator is a Means But suppose it be limited to the Matter of Church Laws If this be the meaning of it that it is not the principal means but a subordinate means or that it is not instituted only propter finem ultimum no more than propter se but also in order to a higher thing as its immediate end we make no question of that Assemblies are not only that there may be assemblies but for the Worship and Offices there performed And those for Man And all for God But what or all this Hath God made no Laws for subordinate means No Christian denyeth it Therefore the Learned and Judicious Disputer of this point declareth himself for what I say when he saith I engage not in the Controversie Whether a particular Congregation be the first political Dr. Stillingflects Iâ—en p. 154 so p. 170. By Church here I mean not a particular Congregation c. So h gâ—anteth that 1 the Universal Church 2. Particular Congregations are of Divine Institution one ex intentione primaria and the other as he calls it accidentally but yet of Natural necessity Church or no It sufficeth for my purpose that there are other Churches besides The thing in question is Whether there be no other Church but such particular Congregations Where it seemeth granted that such particular Churches are of Divine institution And for other Churches I shall say more anon In the mean time note that the question is but de nomine here whether the Name Church be fit for other societiâ—s and not de re But lest any should grow to the boldness to deny that Christ hath instituted Christian stated Societies consisting of Pastors and flocks associate for personal Communion in publick Worship and holy living which is my detinition of a particular Church as not so confined to one assembly but that it may be in divers and yet not consisting of divers such distinct stated assemblies with their distinct Pastors nor of such as can have no personal communion but only by Delegates I prove it thus from the Word of God 1. The Apostles were commissioned by Christ to deliver his commands to all the Churches and settle them according to his will Iohn 20. 21. Matth. 28. 19 20 c. 2. These commissioned persons had the promise of an infallible Spirit for the due performance of their work Iohn 16. 13 14 15. 15. 26. 14. 26. Matth. 28. 20. 3. These Apostles where ever the success of the Gospel prepared them materials did settle Christian stated societies consisting of Pastors or Elders with their flocks associated for personal communion in publick worship and holy living These setled Churches they gave orders to for their direction and preservation and reformation These they took the chief care of themselves and exhorted their Elders to fidelity in their work They gave command that none should forsake such assemblies and they so fully describe them as that they cannot easily be misunderstood All this is proved Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Rom. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 18 20. 22 26. 1 Cor. 14. 4 5 12 19 23 28 33 34. Col. 4. 16. Acts 11. 26. 13. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Acts 14. 27. 15. 3. to omit many more Here are proofs enow that such particular Churches were de facto setled by the Apostles Heb. 10. 25. Forsake not the assembling of your selves together So Iames 2. 2. they are called Synagogues 2. It is confessed that there is a natural necessity of such stated Churches or Assemblies supposing but the Institution of the Worship it self which is there performed And if so then we may say that the Law of Nature it self doth partly require them 1. It is of the Law of Nature that God be publickly worshipped as most Expositors of the fourth Commandment do confess 2. It is of the Law of Nature that the people be taught to know God and their duty by such as are able and fit to teach them 3. The Law of Nature requireth that man being a sociable creature and conjunction working strongest affections we should use our sociableness in the greatest matters and by conjunction help the zeal of our prayers and praises of God 4. Gods institution of publick Preaching Prayer and Praise are scarce denyed by any Christians 5. None of these can be publickly done but by assembling 6. No Assembly can suffice for these without a Minister of Christ Because it is only his Office to be the ordinary Teacher and to go before the people in prayer and praise and to administer the
cannot dispense with us for not Loving our Neighbours or not shewing mercy to the poor oâ— saving the lives of the neâ—dy in 〈◊〉 and diâ—â—ress Else they that at last shall hear I was hungry aâ—d yâ—â—â—â—â— mâ— not I was nâ—ked and ye 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— I was in prison and ye visited me not might oft say â—â—â—◠〈…〉 〈◊〉 Magistrates for bad â—s Yet a lâ—ssâ—r Moral duty may be forbidden by the Magistrate for the sake of a greater because then it is no duty indeed and may be forborn if he forbid it not As to save one manâ— liâ—â— iâ— it would prove the death of a multitude or to save one mans house on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—o woâ—lâ—â—â—â—â—â—any Therefore 10. Iâ— is lawful and â— dâ—â—â—â— to for â—â—â—â— some certain â—â—â—â— or number of Sermons Prayers or Sacraments c. when â—â—â—â—er the present â—se of them would apparently pâ—oâ—â—re more hâ—rt than good o◠〈…〉 forbear 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â— like to prâ—â—â—â—â— moâ—â— good than the doing of them For they are all for our Edification and are made for man and not man for them though for God As if forbearing this dâ—y 〈◊〉 pâ—â—â—â—uâ—â—â—â—â—â— liâ—â—â—â—y for many dayes serviâ—e afterward c. 〈…〉 at the 〈◊〉 oâ—â—an to forsake or forbear our Calling and duty when it is to bâ— judged Necessary to the honour of God to the good of the Church and of mens souls that is whâ—n aâ—â—in 〈◊〉 case Dan. 6. our Religion it self and our owning the true God doth seeâ— suspended by the suspence of our duty Or when the multitude of ignorant hardened â—â—godly souls and the want of fit men for number and quality doth put it past Controversie that our work is greatly necessary 12. Those that are not Immediately called by Christ as were the Apostles but by men being yet Mat. â—8 20. Râ—m 10. 14. 1 â—or 9. 16. â—â—â—â— â— 4â— 10. 4â— â—â—â—m 4 1 2. â—â—â—â— 8 4 12. 1â— 3â— statedly obliged to the death when they are called may truly say as Paul Necessity is laid upon me and woe â—e to me if I preach not the Gospel 13. Papists and Protestants concurr in this judgement Papists will preach when the Law forbids them And the judgement of Protestants is among others by Bishop Bilson of subjection and Bishop Andrews Tortur Tort. plainly so asserted 14. But all that are bound to preach are not bound to do it to the same number nor in the same manner as they have not the same opportunity and call Whether it shall be in this place or that to more or fewer at this hour or that are not determined in Scripture nor alike to all 15. The Temples tythes and such adjuncts of Worship and Ministry are at the Magistrates dispose and must not be invaded against his Laws 16. Where any are obliged to Preach in a forbidden discountenanced state they must study to do it with such prudence caution peaceableness and obedience in all the Lawful circumstantials as may tend to maintain peace and the honour of Magistracy and to avoid temptations to sedition and unruly passions Quest. 81. May we lawfully keep the Lords day as a fast Answ. NOt ordinarily Because God hath made it a day of thanksgiving And we must not pervert it from the use to which it was appointed by God But in case of extraordinary necessity it may be done As 1. In case that some great judgement call us so suddenly to humiliation and fasting as that it cannot be deâ—erred to the next day As some sudden invasion fire sickness c. Luk. 6. 5. 13. â—â— Maâ— 2. In case by persecution the Church be denyed liberty to meet on any other day in a time when publick fasting and prayer is a duty 3. In case the people be so poor or servants Children and Wives be so hardly restrained that they cannot meet at any other time It is lawful in such cases because Positives give way to Moral or Natural duties caeteris paribus and lesser duties unto greater The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath Quest. 82. How should the Lords day be spent in the main Answ. I Have so far opened that in the Family-directions that I will now only say 1. That Eâ—charistical worship is the great work of the day And that it should be kept as a day of publick Psal. 92. 1 2 3 4 5. Psal. 118. 1 2 3 15 19 23 24 27 28 29. Act. 20. 7 9. Rev. 1. 10. Act. 24. 14 25 26 c. Psal. 16. 7 8 9 10. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Thanksgiving for the whole work of Redemption especially for the Resurrection of our Lord. 2. And therefore the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was alwayes a chief part of its observation in the primitive Churches Not meerly for the Sacrament sake but because with it was still joyned all the Laudatory and Thanksgiving worship And it was the Pastors work so to pray and praise God and preach to the people as tendeth most to possess their souls with the liveliest sense of the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the holy Spirit on the account of our Redemption 3. Though confession of sin and humiliation must not be the chief work of the day yet it may and must come in as in due subordination to the chief 1. Because there are usually many persons present who are members only of the visible Church and are not fit for the Laudatory and rejoycing part 2. Because while we are in the flesh our sâ—lvation is imperfect and so are we and much sin still remaineth which must be a grief and burden to believers And therefore while sin is mixt Psal. 2. 9 10 11. Heb. 12. 28 29. with grace Repentance and sorrow must be mixed with our Thanksgivings and we must rejoyce with trembling And though we receive a Kingdom which cannot â—e moved yet must our acceptable service of God be with reverence and Godly fear because our God is a consuming fire 3. Our sin and misery being that which we are saved from doth enter the definition of our salvation And without the sense of theâ— we can never know aâ—ight what mercy is nor ever be truly glad and thankful But yet take heed that this subordinate duty be not pretended for the neglecting of that Thanksgiving which is the work of the day Quest. 83. May the people bear a Vocal part in Worship or do any more than say Amen Answ. YEs The people should say Amen that is openly signifie their consent But the meaning 1 Cor. 14. Psal. 150. 81 2 3. 98. 5. 94. 1 2 3 c. 105. 7. 2 c. 145. thoughout Col. 3 16. is not that they must do no more nor otherwise express their consent saving by that single word For 1. There is no Scripture which forbiddeth more 2. The people bear an equal part in singing the Psalms which are prayer and praise
as much as may be in a way of Concord with the united faithful Pastors and Churches in your proximity or Countrey 3. Look to the publick good and interest of Religion more than to your particular Congregation 4. Neglect not the greatest advantages for your own edification But rather take them by a removal of your dwelling though you suffer by it in your estates than by any division disturbance of the Churches peace or common detriment 5. Do not easily go against the Magistrates Commands unless they be apparently unlawful and to the Churches detriment or ruine in the reception of your Pastors 6. Do not easily forsake him that hath been justly received by the Church and hath possession that is till necessity require it Quest. 106. To whom doth it belong to Reform a Corrupted Church to the Magistrates Pastors or People Answ. A Church is reformed three several wayes 1. By the personal reformation of every member 2. By doctrinal Direction and 3. By publick forcible Execution and constraint of others 1. Every member whether Magistrates Pastors or People must reform themselves by forsaking 1 Cor. 11. 28 29 31 33 34. 1 Cor. 5. 11. Dan. 3. 6. all their own sins and doing their own duties If a Ruler command a private person to go to Mass to own any falshood or to do any sin he is not to be obeyed because God is to be first obeyed 2. The Bishops or Pastors are to Reform the Church by Doctrine Reproof and just Exhortations 1 Cor. 5. 3. 4 5 1. Pet. 5. 2 3. Luke 22. 24 25 26 27. and Nunciative Commands in the name of Christ to Rulers and people to do their several duties and by the actual doing of his own 3. The King and Magistrates under him only must Reform by the Sword that is by outward force and Civil Laws and Corporal Penalties As forcibly to break down Images to cast out Idolaters or the Instruments of Idolatry from the Temples to put true Ministers in possession of the Temples or the Legal publick maintenance to destroy punish or hurt Idolaters c. Supposing still the Power of Parents and Masters in their several families Quest. 107. Who is to Call Synods Princes Pastors or People Answ. 1. THere are several wayes of Calling Synods 1. By Force and Civil Mandates 2. By The question of the power of Synods is sufficiently answered before Pastoral Perswasion and Counsel and 3. By humble intreaty and petition 1. Magistrates only that is the Supream by his own power and the Inferiour by power derived from him may call Synods by Laws and Mandates enforced by the Sword or Corporal Penalties or Mulcts 2. Bishops or Pastors in due Circumstances may call Synods by Counsel and perswasive invitation 3. The people in due Circumstances and necessity may Call Synods by way of Petition and Intreaty But what are the due Circumstances Answ. 1. The Magistrate may Call them by Command at his discretion for his own Counsel or for the Civil peace or the Churches good 2. The Pastors and people may not Call them nor meet when the Magistrate forbiddeth it except when the necessity of the Church requireth it Synods may profitably be stated for order when it may be lawfulâ—y obtained both as to limits of Place numbers and Time But these prudential Orders are not of stated necessity but must give place to weightier reasons on the contrary 3. Synods themselves are not ordinarily necessary by Nature or Institution Let him that affirmeth it prove it But that which is statedly necessary is The Concord of the Churches as the End and a necessary correspondency of the Churches as the Means and Synods when they may well be had as a convenient sort of means 4. When Synods cannot be had or are needless Messengers and Letters from Church to Church may keep up the Correspondency and Concord 5. In cases of real necessity which are very rare though usefulness be more frequent the Bishops and people should first petition the King for his consent And if that cannot be had they may meet secretly and in small numbers for mutual consultation and advice about the work of God and not by keeping up the formality of their set numbers times and places and orders provoke the King against them 6. The contempt of Synods by the separatists and the placing more power in Synods than ever God gave them by others yea and the insisting on their circumstantial orders making them like a Civil Senate or Court have been the two extreams which have greatly injured and divided the Churches throughout the World Quest. 108. To whom doth it belong to appoint dayes and assemblies for publick Humiliation and Thanksgiving Answ. THe answer of the last question may serve for this 1. The Magistrate only may do it by way of Laws or civil Mandate enforced by the sword 2. The Pastors may do it in case of necessity by Pastoral advice and exhortation and nunciative command in the name of Christ. 3. The people may do it by Petition 4. As ordinary Church Assemblies must be held if the Magistrate forbid them of which next so must extraordinary ones when extraordinary causes make it a duty 5. When the Magistrate forcibly hindereth them natural impossibility resolveth the question about our duty Quest. 109. May we omit Church-assemblies on the Lords day if the Magistrate forbid them Answ. 1. IT is one thing to forbid them for a time upon some special cause as Infection by May we omit Church-Assemblies on the Lords day if forbidden by Magistrates pestilence fire war c. And another thing to forbid them statedly or prophanely 2. It is one thing to omit them for a time and another to do it ordinarily 3. It is one thing to omit them in formal obedience to the Law and another thing to omit them in prudence or for necessity because we cannot keep them 4. The Assembly and the circumstances of the Assembly must be distinguished 1. If the Magistrate for a greater good as the common safety forbid Church Assemblies in a time of pestilence assault of enemies or fire or the like necessity it is a duty to obey him Because positive duties give place to those great natural duties which are their end so Christ justified himself and his disciples violation of the external rest of the Sabbath For the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath 2. Because Affirmatives bind not ad semper and out of season duties become sins 3. Because one Lords day or Assembly is not to be preferred before Many which by the omission of that one are like to be obtained 2. If Princes prophanely forbid holy assemblies and publick worship either statedly or as a renunciation of Christ and our religion it is not Lawful formally to obey them 3. But it is lawful prudently to do that secretly for the present necessity which we cannot do publickly and to do that with smaller numbers which we
honour the memory of Learned Great and Virtuous persons Saints and Ut Bezae Iconâ—â— Viror illustrium Martyrs by keeping their Images and by the beholding of them to be remembred of our duty and excited to imitation of them 11. It is lawful to use Hieroglyphicks or Images expressing Virtues and Vices As men commonly make Images to decipher Prudence Temperance Charity Fortitude Justice c. and Envy Sloth Pride Lust c. As they do of the five senses and the four seasons of the year and the several parts of mans age and the several ranks and qualities of persons c. 12. Thus it is lawful to represent the Devil and Idols when it tendeth but to make them odious For as we must not take their names into our mouths Psal. 16. 4. Exod. 23. 13. Ephes. 5 3. that is when it tendeth to honour them or tempt men to it and yet may name them as Elias did in scorn or as the Prophets did by reproof of sin so is it also in making representations of them Even as a Drunkard may be painted in his filth and folly to bring shame and odium on the sin 13. It is lawful to use Hieroglyphicks instead of Letters in teaching Children or in Letters to friends or to make Images to stand as characters in stead of Words and so to use them even about sacred things 14. As it is lawful to use arbitrary Professing signes even about Holy things which signifie no more than words and have by nature or custome an aptitude to such a use while it is extended no farther than to open our own minds so it may be lawful to use such a characteristical or hieroglyphical image to that end when it hath the same aptitude but not otherwise As a circular figure or ring being a hieroglyphick of perpetuity and so of constancy is used as a significant profession of constancy in Marriage And so the receiving of each others picture might be used And so in Covenanting or taking an Oath the professing sign is left to the custome of the Countrey whether we signifie our consent by gesture words action writing And as it is lawful to make an Image on a seal which hath a sacred signification as a flaming heart on an Altar a Bible a Praying Saint c. as well as to write a Religious Motto on a seal so is it lawful to put this seal to a subscribed Covenant with Neh. 9. 38. Esth. 8. 8. God and his Church or our King and Countrey when we have a Lawful call to seal such a Covenant But if Law or Custome would make such a seal to be the common publick badge or symbol of the Christian Religion I think it would become unlawful As the Crucifix for ought I know might thus have been arbitrarily used as a seal or as a transient arbitrary Professing sign as the Cross was by the ancients at the beginning If any man had scorned me for believing in a Crucified Christ I know not but I might have made a Crucifix by art act or gesture to tell him that I am not ashamed of Christ as well as I may tell him so by word of mouth But if mens institution or custome shall make this a symbol or badge of a Christian and twist it in Baptism or adjoyn it as a Dedicating Sign and as the Common professing Symbol that every baptized person must use to signifie and declare that he is not ashamed of Christ crucified but believeth in him and will manfully fight under his banner against the flesh the world and the Devil to the death Though he call it but a Professing Sign and say He doth but signifie his own mind and not Gods act and grace I should wish him to distinguish between a private or arbitrary act of Profession and a common publick badge and professing Symbol of our Religion And tell him that I think the instituting of the latter belongs to God alone And that he hath made two Sacraments to that end which Sacraments are essentially such symbols and badges of our Profession and are dedicating signs on the receivers part And that Christ crucified is the chief Grace or Mercy given to the Church and his Sacrifice is his own act And therefore objectively the Grace and Act of God also is here signified And therefore on two accounts set together I fear this use of the Câ—ucifix is a sin 1. As it is an Image though it should be transient used as a medium in Gods Worship and so forbidden in the second Commandment For it is not a meer circumstance of Worship but an outward act of Worship 2. Because it is a new humane Sacrament or hath too much of the Essence of a Sacrament and so is an usurpation of his Prerogative that made the Sacraments For as I said It belongeth to the King to make the common badge or symbol of his own subjects or any Order honoured by him And the General giveth out his own Colours And though one may arbitrarily wear another Colour yet if any shall give out common Colours to his Army Regiment or Troop beside his own to be the symbol or badge of his Souldiers I think he would take it for too much boldness Yet if only an inferiour Captain gave but subordinate Colours not to notifie a Souldier of the Army as such but to distinguish his Troop from the rest it were not so much as the other So if a Bishop or Ruler did but make such a symbol by which the Christians of his charge might be discerned from all others and not as a badge of Christianity it self though I know no reason for such distinction and it may be faulty otherwise yet would it not be this usurping of Sacramental Institution which now I speak of All Professing signs are not symbols of Christianity Christ hath done his own work well already His Colours Sacraments or Symbols are sufficient we need not devise more and accuse his institutions of insufficiency nor make more work for our selves in Religion when we leave undone so much that he hath made us 15. All abuse of Images will not warrant us to separate from the Church which abuseth them nor is all such abuse Idolatry If the Church or our Rulers will against our will place Images inconveniently in Churches we may lawfully be there so that they be not Symbols of Idol Worship or of a Religion or Worship so sinful in the substance as that God will not accept it and so be it we make no sinful use of those inconvenient Images our selves Though meer Temptation and Scandal make them sinful in those that so abuse them and set them up yet he that is not the author of that Temptation or Scandal may not forsake Gods Worship because that such things are present nor is not to be interpreted a Consenter to them while he cometh only about lawful Worship and perhaps hath fit opportunity at other times to profess his dissent 16. It
that is eldest and ablest and be ruled by him 24. Whether there shall be any Deaconesses in the Church 25. Whether a Church shall have one Minister two or more 26. Who shall be the men 27. What space of ground shall be the Church bounds for the cohabitation of the members 28. How many Neighbour Churches shall make a Synod and which be they 29. How many members a Synod shall consist of 30. Who shall be president Or whether any And who shall gather the Votes 31. Who shall record their Acts as Scribe 32. What Messenger shall carry them to the Churches 33. What Letters for Correspondence and Communion shall be written to the Churches 34. When Pastors shall remove from one Church to another And to which 35. Who shall be ordained Ministers to Preach Baptize and gather Churches 36. How many the Ordainers shall be 37. Whether there shall be any Musick by Instruments in the Church or house for the praises of God and what 38. Who shall lead the Psalm 39. Who shall read 40. What words the Churches Profession of faith shall be expressed by 41. By what signes the Church shall signifie their consent Whether lifting up the hand standing up bowing the head or by voice or writing 42. By what sign or ceremony men shall take an oath Whether lifting up the hand toward Heaven or laying it on a Book or kissing the Book c. 43. Whether the people at the Sacrament sit neer the Table or keep farther off 44. Whether it be put into each persons hand or they take it themselves With many more such like 4. And it is a lawful Invention to determine of meer Circumstances of Time and place which God hath not determined of in Scripture As 1. At how many times in the year or week Baptism shall be administred 2. At what age persons be admitted to the Lords Supper 3. On what dayes and hours of the week there shall be Lectures or Church-assemblies 4. How oâ—t and when Ministers shall Caâ—echise and instruct the people privately 5. On what hour the Church shall assemble on the Lords dayes and receive the Sacrament 6. How long Prayer Reading and Sermon shall be 7. At what hour to end the publick exercises 8. At what hours to pray in Families or in secret 9. How often Disciplinary meetings shall be held for the trying of accused members 10. How often Synods shall meet and how long continue Of Holy dayes before 5. The same is to be said for the Places of Holy Exercises 1. What Edifices the Churches shall have for such uses 2. In what places they shall be scituate 3. Where the Pulpit shall stand 4. And where the Font 5. And where the Table 6. Where each of the people shall sit 7. Where Synods shall meet 8. How many Temples shall be in a City c. 6. The same is to be said of all Accidental subordinate Offices As Lectors Clerks Door-keepers Church-wardens and many more before mentioned 7. The same is to be said of Church Utensils As Table Cups Linen Pulpits Fonts Clock Hour-glass Bells Seats decent Habit of Cloaths c. 8. The same may be said of Decent Gestures not particularly commanded As what Gesture to Preach in standing or sitting What Gesture to Read in What Gesture to Hear in What Gesture to sing Psalms in Whether to be covered or bare-headed In what gesture to receive the Lords Supper In which Scripture no more regulateth us than of the room the hour of communicating the number of Communicants the place in all which Christs example was not a particular Law 9. The same may be said of Order 1. Whether the Pastor shall begin with Prayer reading or exhortation 2. Whether the people shall begin with prayer or ejaculations privately 3. Whether we shall make but one or two long continued prayers or many short ones 4. Whether we shall pray before Sermon immediately and after in the Pulpit or in the Reading place 5. When the Psalms shall be said or sung and how many 6. How many Chapters shall be read and which and in what order 7. Whether Baptism shall be before or after or when 8. When the Catechumens and Learners shall be dismissed and the proper Eucharistical Church Exercises begin 9. When Collections made c. But O Lord have compassion on thy scattered flocks who are afflicted and divided by the Imperiousness of those Pastors who think it not enough for the exercise of their Domination to promote all thine own holy Laws and doctrines and to make their own Canons in all these cases or such like but they must needs make more work than all this cometh to for themselves and for the flocks even unto those distractions and dissâ—pations and fierce persecutions and contentions which many hundred years have exercised the Greek and Latine Churches and many more throughout the World Quest. 134. What are the mischiefs of unlawful Additions in Religion Answ. ALas many and great 1. They tend to dethrone Christ from his Soveraignty and Legislative prerogative 2. And to advance Man blind and sinful man into his place 3. And thereby to debase Religion making it but a humane or a mixed thing And it can be no more noble than its Author is 4. And thereby they debase also the Church of God and the Government of it while they make it to be but a Humane policy and not Divine 5. They tend to depose God from his Authority in mens Consciences and to level or joyn him there but with man 6. They tend to mens doubtfulness and uncertainty of their Religion seeing man is fallible and so may his constitutions be 7. They tend to drive out all true Religion from the World while Man that is so Bad is the maker of it and it may be suspected to be bad that is made by so bad an Author 8. And it taketh off the fear of God and his judgement For it is man that must be feared so far as man is the maker of the Law And it destroyeth the consolation of believers which consisteth in the hopes of a reward from God For he that serveth man must be rewarded by man And though they do not exclude God but joyn him with themselves yet this mixture debaseth and destroyeth Religion as the mixture of God and Mammon in mens Love and as mixt and debased metals do the Soveraign's coin 9. It hardeneth Infidels and hindereth their Conversion For they will reverence no more of our Religion than we can prove to be Divine And when they find one part of it to be humane they suspect the rest to be so too and contemn it all Even as Protestants do Popery for the abundance of humane trinkets and toyes with which we see them exercise and delude their silly followers 10. It is the great engine of dividing all the Churches and breeding and feeding conâ—â—ntions in the Christian World 11. And because men that will command will be obeyed and they that are
absolutely subjected to God will obey none against him whatever it cost them as Dan. 3. 6. Heb. 11. Luk. 14. 26 33. Matth. 5. 10 11 12. therefore it hath proved the occasion of bloody persecutions in the Churches by which professed Christians draw the guilt of Christian blood upon themselves 12. And hereby it hath dolefully hindered the Gospel while the persecutors have silenced many worthy Conscionable Preachers of it 13. And by this it hath quenched Charity in the hearts of both sides and taught the sufferers and the afflicters to be equally bitter in censuring if not Rom. 14 15. detesting one another 14. And the Infidels seeing these dissensions and bitter passions among Christians deride and scorn and hate them all 15. Yea such causes as these in the Latine and Greek Churches have engaged not only Emperours and Princes against their own subjects so that Chronicles and Books of Martyrs perpetuate their dishonour as Pilate's name is in the Creed but also have set them in bloody Wars among themselves These have been the fruits and this is the tendency of usurping Christs prerogative over his Religion and Worship in his Church And the greatness of the sin appeareth in these aggravations 1. It is a mark of pitiful Ignorance and Pride when dust shall thus like Nebuchadnezzar exalt it self against God to its certain infamy and abasement 2. It sheweth that men little know themselves that think themselves fit to be the makers of a Religion for so many others And that they have base thoughts of all other men while they think them unfit to Worship God any other way than that of their making And think that they will all so far deny God as to take up a Religion that 's made by man 3. It shews that they are much void of Love to others that can thus use them on so small occasion 4. And it sheweth how little true sense or reverence of Christian Religion they have themselves who can thus debase it and equal their own inventions with it 5. And it leaveth men utterly unexcusable that will not take warning by so many hundred years experiences of most of the Churches through the World Even when we see the yet continued divisions of the Eastern and Western Churches and all about a humane Religion in the parts most contended about When they read of the Rivers of Blood that have been shed in Piedmont France Germany Belgia Poland Ireland and the flames in England and many other Nations and all for the humane parts of mens Religion He that will yet go on and take no warning may go read the 18th and 19th of the Revelation and see what Joy will be in Heaven and Earth when God shall do Justice upon such But remember that I speak all this of no other than those expresly here described Quest. 135. What are the mischiefs of mens error on the other extream who pretend that Scripture is a Rule where it is not and deny the foresaid lawful things on pretence that Scripture is a perfect Rule say some for all things Answ. 1. THey fill their own minds with a multitude of causeless scruples which on their principles can never be resolved and so will give themselves no rest 2. They make themselves a Religion of their own and superstition is their daily devotion which being erroneous will not hang together but is full of contradictions in it self and which being humane and bad can never give true stability to the soul. 3. Hereby they spend their dayes much in melancholy troubles and unsetled distracting doubts and fears instead of the Joyes of solid faith and hope and love 4. And if they escape this their Religion is contentious wrangling censorious and factious and their zeal flyeth out against those that differ from their peculiar superstitions and conceits 5. And hereupon they are usually mutable and unfetled in their Religion This year for one and the next for another because there is no Certainty in their own inventions and conceits 6. And hereupon they still fall into manifold parties because each man maketh a Religion to himself by his mis-interpretation of Gods Word So that there is no end of their divisions 7. And they do a great deal of hurt in the Church by putting the same distracting and dividing conceits into the heads of others And young Christians and Women and ignorant well meaning people that are not able to know who is in the right do often turn to that party which they think most strict and godly though it be such as our Quakers And the very good conceit of the people whom they take it from doth settle so strong a prejudice in their mind as no argument or evidence scarcely can work out And so Education Converse and humane estimation breedeth a succession of dividers and troublers of the Churches 8. They sin against God by calling good evil and light darkness and honouring superstition which is the work of Satan with holy names Isa. 5. 20 21. 9. They sin by adding to the Word of God while they say of abundance of Lawful things This is unlawful and that is against the Word of God and pretend that their Touch not taste not handle Col. 2. 22 23. not is in the Scriptures For while they make it a Rule for every Circumstance in particular they must squeeze and force and wrest it to find out all those Circumstances in it which were never there and so by false expositions make the Scriptures another thing 10. And how great a sin is it to Father Satans works on God and to say that all these and these things are forbidden or commanded in the Scripture and so to belye the Lord and the Word of Truth 11. It engageth all Subjects against their Rulers Laws and Government and involveth them in the sin of denying them just obedience while all the Statute Book must be found in the Scriptures or else condemned as unlawful 12. It maintaineth disobedience in Churches and causeth Schisms and Confusions unavoidably For they that will neither obey the Pastors nor joyn with the Churches till they can shew Scriptures particularly for every Translation Method Metre Tune and all that 's done must joyn with no Churches in the world 13. It bringeth Rebellion and Confusion into families while Children and Servants must learn no Catechism hear no Minister give no account observe no hours of prayer nay nor do no work but what there is a particular Scripture for 14. It sets men on Enthusiastical expectations and irrational scandalous worshipping of God while all men must avoid all those Methods Phrases Books Helps which are not expresly or particularly in Scripture and men must noâ— use their own Inventions or prudence in the right ordering of the works of Religion 15. It destroyeth Christian Love and Concord while men are taught to censure all others that use any thing in Gods Worship which is not particularly in Scripture and so to censure
antient formulae agree not in words among themselves 5. It is not to be doubted of but the Apostles did appoint and use a Creed commonly in their ☞ dayes And that it is the same with that which is now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main but not just the same composure of words nor had they any such precise composure as can be proved But this much is easily provable 1. That Christ Composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 2. That in the Jewish Church where men were educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures and expectation of the Mâ—ssiah it was supposed that the people had so much preparatory knowledge as made them the more capable of Baptism as soon as they did but seriously profess to Believe and Consent to the terms of the Covenant And therefore they were presently baptized Acts 2. 38 39 40. 3. That this could not be rationally supposed among the Gentiles and common Ignorant people of the world And Ignorantis non est Consensus He doth not Covenant who understandeth not the Covenant as to what is promised him and what he promiseth 4. That the Apostles baptized and caused others to baptize many thousands and settle many Churches before any part of the New Testament was written even many and many years 5. That the Apostles did their work as well and better than any that succeeded them 6. That their successors in the Common Ministery did as far as any Church History leadeth us up Instruct and Catechise men in the meaning of the Baptismal Covenant which is the Christian faith before they baptized them Yea they kept them long in the state of Catechumens usually before they would baptize them And after baptized but twice a year at Easter and Whitsontide as our Liturgy noteth And they received an account of their tolerable understanding of Religion before they would receive them into the Church 7. No doubt then but the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and to give some account of it before they baptized them ordinarily among the Gentiles 8. No doubt therefore but they used many more Explicatory words to cause them to understand those few 9. There is neither proof nor probability that they used a Composure of just the same words and no more or less Because they had to do with persons of several capacities some knowing who needed fewer words and some ignorant and dull who needed more Nor is any such Composure Heb. 5. 11 12. 6. 1 2 3. come down to our hands 10. But it is more than probable that the Matter opened by them to all the Catechumens was still the same when the words were not the same For Gods Promises and mans Conditions are still the same where the Gospel cometh Though since by the occasion of Heresies some few material clauses are inserted For all Christians had one Christianity and must go one way to Heaven 11. It is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter But that all Christians before baptism did make the same profession of faith as to the sense and very much the same as to the very words using necessary caution and yet avoiding unnecessary preciseness of formality But so as to obviate damnable Heresies that the Christian profession might attain its ends 12. Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was exemplary and imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered 2 Tim. 1 13. 2 Cor. 3. 2 3 7. Heb. 8. 10. 10. 16. by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And every Christian was an Impress or Transcript or Specimen of it And that the following Churches using the same Creed wholly in sense and mostly in words might so far well call it The Apostles Creed As they did both the Western and the Nicene Quest. 140. What is the use of Catechisms Answ. TO be a more familiar explication of the Essentials of Christianity and the principal Integrals in a larger manner than the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue do that the ignorant may the more easily understand it Every man cannot gather out of the Scripture the Greatest matters in the true method as distinct from all the rest And therefore it is part of the work of the Churches Teachers to do it to the hands and use of the ignorant Quest. 141. Could any of us have known by the Scriptures alone the Essentials of Religion from the Rest if Tradition had not given them to us in the Creed as from Apostolical Collection Answ. YEs For the Scripture it self telleth us what is necessary to salvation It describeth to us the Covenant of Grace both Promises and Conditions And it were strange if so large a Volume should not as plainly tell us what is necessary to salvation as fewer words The Scripture hath not Less than the Creed but more Quest. 142. What is the best Method of a true Catechism or Summ of Theology Answ. GOd willing I shall tell the Church my opinion of that at large in a peculiar Latin Treatise called Methodus Theologiae which here I cannot do Only I shall say that among all the great variety of Methods used in these times I think none cometh nearer the Order of the Matter which is the true Commendation of a Method than those which open Theology 1. In the breviate of the Baptismal Covenant 2. In the three explicatory summs the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue with the added Gospel Precepts 3. In the Largest form which is the whole Scripture And that our common English Catechism and Paraeus or Ursine and many such who use that common easie Method are more truly Methodical than most that pretend to greater accu 〈…〉 ness Though I much commend the great industry of such as Dudley Fenner Gomarrus and 〈…〉 cially George Sohenius Quest. 143. What is the use of various Church Confessions or Articles of Faith Answ. I Will pass by the very ill use that is made of them in too many Countreys where unnecessary opinions or uncertain are put in and they that can get into favour with the Secular Power take advantage under pretence of Orthodoxness and Uniformity Truth and Peace to set up their opinions and judgements to be the common rule for all to bow to though wiser than themselvâ—s And to silence all Ministers and scatter and divide the flocks that will not say or swear as they do that is that they are wise men and are in the right The true and commendable use of various Church Professions or Confessions of faith is 1. To be an Instruction to the more ignorant how to understand the Scriptures in most of the most weighty points 2. To be an enumeration of
14. Tit. 3. 3 5 6. 2. 13 14. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Exod. 19. 6. Rom. 1. 1 2. 1 Cor. 3. 17. 7. 14. Zech. 2. 12. Hag. 2. 12. Luk. 1. 70 72. Ezr. 8. 28. 9. 2. Numb 31. 6. Numb 6. 8 20. Lev. 16. 4 33. Exod. 29. 6 33. Psal. 89. 20. Numb 35. 25. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Isa. 58. 13. Psal. 42. 4. 2 Pet. 1. 18 21. Psal. 87. 1. Num. 5. 17. Exod. 3. 5. 1 Sam. 21. 5. Neh. 8. 9 10 11. infinite is the distance between God and us that whatever is His in a special sense or separated to his use is called Holy And that is 1. Persons 2. Things 1. Persons are either 1. In general devoted to his Love and Service 2. Or specially devoted to him in some special office Which is 1. Ecclesiastical 2. Oâ—conomical 3. Political Those devoted to his general service are 1. Either Heartily and sincerely so devoted who are ever sanctified in the first Real sense also or only by word and outward profession 2. Things devoted to God are 1. Some by his own immediate choice designation and command 2. Or by general directions to man to do it And these are 1. Some things more Nâ—erly some things more Remotely separated to him None of these must be confounded And so we must conclude 1. All that shall be saved are Really Holy by a Divine Inclination and nature and Actual exercise thereof and Relatively Holy in a special sense as thus devoted and separated to God 2. All the Baptized and professors not apostate are Relatively Holy as verbally devoted and separated to God 3. All that are Ordained to the Sacred Ministry are Relatively Holy as devoted and separated to that office And the well qualified are also really Holy as their qualifications are either special or common 4. All that are duly called of God to the Place of Kings and Iudges and Rulers of families are Relatively Sacred as their offices and they are of God and for him and devoted to him 5. Temples and other utensils designed by God himself are Holy as Related to him by that designation 6. Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by man for holy uses are Holy as justly Related to God by that lawful separation To say as some do that They are indeed consecrated and separated but not Holy is to be ridiculously wise by self-contradiction and the masterly use of the word Holy contrary to custome and themselves 7. Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being neerlier related to holy things And things separated by God himself are more holy than those justly separated by man And so of dayes 8. Things Remotely devoted to God are Holy in their distant place and measure As the Meat Drink House Lands Labours of every Godly man who with himself devoteth all to God But this being more distant is yet a remoter degree of Holiness II. Every thing should be Reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed Uncovered in Church and Reverent gestures by such signes gestures actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are Related And so to be uncovered in Church and use Reverent carriage and gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Quest. 171. What is Sacriledge and what not Answ. I. SAcriledge is Robbing God by the unjust alienation of holy things And it is measured Rom. 2. 22. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. Heb. 6. 6 7. Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. 1 Thes. 2. 15 16. â—ev 19. 8. Heb. 12. 16. Act. 5. 5 c. â—zek 22. 26. 42. 20. 44. 23. according as things are diversified in Holiness as 1. The greatest Sacriledge is a prophane unholy alienating a person to the flâ—sh and the world from God and his Love and his service who by Baptism was devoted to him And so all wicked Christians are grosly Sacrilegious 2. The next is alienating consecrated persons from the sacred work and office by deposing Kings or by unjust silencing or suspending true Ministers or their casting off Gods work themselves This is far greater sacriledge than alienating Lands or Utensils 3. The next is the unjust alienating of Temples Utensils Lands dayes which were separated by God himself 4. And next such as were justly consecrated by man as is aforesaid in the degrees of Holiness II. It is not Sacriledge 1. To cease from the Ministry or other holy service when sickness disability of body or violence utterly disable us 2. Nor to alienate Temples Lands goods or utensils when providence maketh it needful to the Churches good so the fire in London hath caused a diminution of the number of Churches so some Bishops of old sold the Church plate to relieve the poor And some Princes have sold some Church Lands to save the Church and state in the necessities of a lawful war Matth. 12. 5. 3. It is not Sacriledge to alienate that which man devoted but God accepted not nor owned as appropriate to him which his prohibition of such a dedication is a proof of As if a man devote his wife to chastity or his Son to the Ministry against their wills or if a man Vow himself to the Ministry that is unable and hath no call or if so much Lands or goods be consecrated as is superfluous useless and injurious to the common wellfare and the state Alienation in these cases is no sin Quest. 172. Are all Religious and private meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Conventicles Or are any such necessary Answ. THough both such Meetings and our Prisons tell us how greatly we now differ about this point in the application of it to persons and our present case yet I know no difference in the doctrinal resolution of it among most sober Christians at all which makes our case strange For ought I know we are agreed I. 1. That it is more to the honour of the Church and of Religion and of God and more to our Psal. 1. 2 4 5. 22. 25. 35. 18. 40. 9 10. Act. 28. last Heb. 10. 25. Act. 20. 7. 1. 15. 2. 44 1 Cor. 14. 23. safety and edification to have Gods Worship performed solemnly publickly and in great assemblies than in a corner secretly and with few 2. That it is a great mercy therefore where the Rulers allow the Church such publick Worship 3. That caeteris paribus all Christians should prefer such publick worship before private And no private meetings should be kept up which are opposite or prejudicial to such publick meetings 4. And therefore if such meetings or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the Ministry the service of God and good of souls be forbidden by Lawful Rulers they must be forborn II. But we are also agreed 1. That it is not the Place but the presence of the true Pastors and 1 Cor. 16. 19. Rom. 16. 5. Act.
will ever study the Laws of the Land And it is a preposterous course and the way of Ignorance and errour for a Divine to study Gods Laws and a Lawyer mans Laws before either of them know in general what a Law or what Government is as nature notifieth it to us § 20. Direct 15. When you come to Divinity I am not for their way that would have you begin with the Fathers and thence form a body of Divinity to your selves If every young student must be put on such a task we may have many Religions quickly but shall certainly have much ignorance and errour We must not be so blind or unthankful to God as to dâ—ny that later times have brought forth abundance of Theological writings incomparably more methodical judicious full clear and excellently fiâ—ted also by application to the good of souls than any that are known to us since the writing of the Sacred Scriptures Reverence of antiquity hath its proper place and use but is not to make men fools non-proficients or contemners of Gods greater mercies My advice therefore is that you begin with a conjunction of English Catechisms and the Confessions I mention not your reading the Scripture as supposing it â—ust be your constant work of all the Churches and the Practical holy writings of our English Divines And that you never separate these asunder These Practical Books do commonly themselves contain the Principles and do press them in so warm a working manner as is likest to bring them to the heart And till they are there they are not received according to their use but kept as in the porch Get then six or seven of the most judicious Catechisms and compare them well together and compare all the Confessions of the Churches where you may be sure that they put those which they account the weightiest and surest truths And with them read daily the most spiritual heart-moving Treatises of Regeneration and our Covenant with God in Christ of Repentance faith Love obedience hope and of a Heavenly mind and life as also of Prayer and other particular duties and of Temptations and particular sins And when you have gone through the Catechisms read over three or four of the soundest systemes of Divinity And after that proceed to some larger Theses and then to the study of the clearest and exactest Methodists And think not that you well understand Divinity till 1. You know it as methodized and joynted in a due Scheme and the several parts of it in their several Schemes seeing you know not the beauty nor the true sense of things if you know them not in their proper places where they stand in their several respects to other points And 2. Till it be wrought into your very hearts and digested into a holy nature For when all is done it is only a holy and Heavenly life that will prove you wise and make you happy and give you solid peace and comfort § 21. Direct 16. When you have gone so far set your selves to read the Ancients 1. And take them in order as they lived 2. Observe most the Historical part what doctrines and practises de factâ— did then obtain 3. Some must be read wholly and some but in part 4. Councils and Church History here have a chief place § 22. Direct 17. With them read the best Commentators on the Scriptures old and new § 23. Direct 18. And then set your selves to the study of Church Controversies Though those that the Times make necessary must be sooner lookt into Look first and most into those which your own Consciences and practice require your acquaintance with And above all here read well those Writings that confute Atheists and Infidels and most solidly prove the truth of the Christian Religion And then those that defend the greatest points And think not much to bestow some time and labour in reading some of the old School Divines § 24. Direct 19. When you come to form up your Belief of certainties in Religion take in nothing as sure and necessary which the ancient Churches did not receive Many other things may be taken for truths and in perspicuity and method the late times much excell them But Christian Religion is still the same thing and therefore we must have no other Religion in the great and necessary parts than they had § 25. Direct 20. Still remember that mens various capacities do occasion a great variety of Duties some men have clear and strong Understandings by nature These should study Things as much as Books For possibly they may excell and correct their Authors Some are naturally of duller or less-judicious heads that with no study of Things can reach half so high as they may do by studying the Writings of those who are wiser than ever they are like to be These must take more on trust from their Authors and confess their weakness § 26. Direct 21. After or with all Controversies be well verst in the Writings of those Reconcilers who pretend to narrow or end the differences For usually they are such as know more than the Contenders I proceed now to give you some Names of Books Quest. 174. What Books Especially of Theologie should one choose who for want of money or time can read but few Answ. General THe truth is 1. It is not the reading of many Books which is necessary to make a man wise or good But the well reading of a few could he be sure to have the best 2. And it is not possible to read over very many on the same subjects without a great deal of loss of pretious time 3. And yet the Reading of as many as is possible tendeth much to the increase of knowledge and were the best way if greater matters were not that way unavoidably to be omitted Life therefore being short and work great and Knowledge being for Love and Practice and no man having leisure to learn all things a wise man must be sure to lay hold on that which is most useful and necessary 4. But some considerable acquaintance with many Books is now become by accident necessary to a Divine 1. Because unhappily a young Student knoweth not which are the best till he hath tryed them And when he should take another mans word he knoweth not whose word it is that he should take For among grave men accounted great Scholars it s few that are truly judicious and wise and he that is not wise himself cannot know who else are so indeed And every man will commend the Authors that are of his own opinion And if I commend to you some Authors above others what do I but commend my own judgement to you even as if I commended my own Books and perswaded you to read them when another man of a different judgement will commend to you Books of a different sort And how knoweth a raw Student which of us is in the right 2. Because no one man is so full and perfect as to say all
be so in seriousness and not hypocrisie and jeast It being no such small contemptible matter to be turned into dissembling complement § 8. Memorand 8. Endeavour the Unity and Concord of all the Churches and Christians that are Memor 8. under your Government and that upon the terms which all Christs Churches have sometime been united in that is In the Holy Scriptures implicitly as the General Rule In the ancient Creeds explicitly as the sum of our Credenda and in the Lords Prayer as the summary of our Expetenda and in the Decalogue as the summary of our Agenda supposing that we live in peaceable Obedience to our Governours whose Laws must rule us not only in things Civil but in the Ordering of those circumstances of Worship and discipline which God hath left to their determination § 9. Memorand 9. Let all things in Gods Worship be done to Edification decently and in Order Memor 9. and the body honour God as well as the soul But yet see that the Ornaments or garments of Religion be never used against the substance but that Holiness Unity Charity and Peace have alway the precedency § 10. Memorand 10. Let the fear of sinning against God be cherished in all and let there be Memor 10. a tenderness for such as are over scrupulous and fearful in some smaller things and let not things August Ep. â—o isaâ— Omnes Reges qui populo Dei non prohibuerunt nec everterunt quae contra Dei praecepta fuerunt instituta culpantur Qui prohibuerunt everterunt super aliorum merita laudantur be ordered so as shall most tend to the advantage of debauched Consciences that dare say or do any thing for their carnal ends For they are truest to their Governours that are truest to their God And when it is the wrath of God and Hell that a man is afraid of it is pity he should be too eagerly spurred on The unconscionable sort will be true to their Governours no longer than it serves their interest Therefore Conscientiousness should be encouraged § 11. Memorand 11. If the Clergy or most Religious people offend let their punishment be such Memor 11. as falleth only on themselves and reacheth not Christ nor the Gospel nor the Church Punish When Hunnerichus the Arrian Vandal King was resolved to banish imprison and otherwise persecute the Orthodox Bishops and Pastors he first tryeth them by threatnings and divers cruelties and after appointeth a publick Disputation where his Bishops and Officers having no better pretence cruelly beat the people and Pastors and then falsly tell the King that by tumult and clamour they avoided disputing And at last he calleth together all the Pastors that were met for the disputation and to ensnare them putteth an Oath upon them that after the Kings death they would take his Son for their King and that they would send no Letters beyond Sea This Oath divided the Orthodox among themselves For one part of the Bishops and Pastors said If we refuse a Lawful Oath our people will say that we forsake them and the dissolution oâ— the Churches will be imputed to â—s The other part perceiving the snare were fain to pretend Christs command Swear not at all The King having separated them and the Officers took all their names sendeth them all to prison To those that took the Oath they said Because that contrary to the command of the Gospel you would swear you shall see your Cities and Churches no more but be sent into the Countrey to till the ground but so that you presume not to sing Psalms or Pray or carty a Book or Baptize or Ordain or absolve To those that refused the Oath they said Because you desired not the Reign of the Kings Son and therefore refused the Oath you shall be banished to the Isle of Corsica to cut Wood for the Ships Victor Utic p. mihi 456 457. Generalis Jesuitarum ex nimio absoluti imperii amore delâ—turas in sciâ—nia sua admittit iisque credit non audito eo qui accusatur quod injustitiae genus ab ethnicis ipsis improbatur Imperando non bonis Regibus se facit similem qui senatum magni fecerunt sed Tyrannos mavult imitari e. g. Tarquinium superbum qui ante omnia conatus est debilitare senatus numerum authoritatem ut omnia suo libitu facere posset similiter Generalis cum Assistenâ—ibus suis odit synodos generales omniaque experitur ne tales instituantur conventus quibus rerum gesâ—arum reddere rationem necesse habeat Generalis Jesuit in eligendis officialibus non curat quod sit cujusque talentum aut dotes eminentiores sed quam benè secum aut cum Provinciali suo CONFORMETUR quae causa est â—uâ— homines viles abjecti animi officiis praeponantur qui à superioribus duci se sinant ut nervis alienis mobile ligâ—um Mariana de Refor Iesuit c. 13 15 16 18. in Arcan Iâ—sâ—it p. 131 132. recit in Apoloâ— Giraldi Nulla est latronum societatas in qua Justitia non plus loci habeat quam in societate nostra c. Ubi non modo scientia ignorantia in aequo sunt sed etiam scientia impedimento est quo minus quis consequatur praemia humano aâ— diuino jure debita Marian. Aphor. 84. c. 12. c. 14 89. Aph. 87 c. The rest is worth the reading as a warning from a Jesuite to the Governours of State and Church Aph. 80. c. 11. Superiores societatis nostrae sunt homines indigni qui officiis praesint cum Generalis metuat ac sublatos velit quorum eminentes sunt virtutes Boni quam mali ei suspectiores sunt This and abundance more saith Mariana a Jesuite of 96 years of age learned in Hebrew Chaldee Syriack Greek and Latine of his own Society not Christ for his servants failings nor the Gospel for them that sin against it nor the souls of the people for their Pastors faults But see that the interest of Christ and mens souls be still secured § 12. Memorand 12. If the dissentions of Lawyers or States-men make factions in the Common-wealth Memor 12. let not the fault be laid on Religion though some Divines fall into either faction When the difference is not in Divinity but in Law Cases blame not Religion for that which it hath no hand in And watch against Satan who alway laboureth to make Civil factions or differences tend to the dishonour of Religion and the detriment of the Church and Gospel § 13. Memorand 13. Take those that are Covetous ambitious or selfish and seek for preferment Memor 13. to be the unfittest to be consulted with in the matters of Religion and the unfittest to be trusted with the charge of souls And let the humble mortified self-denying men be taken as fitter Pastors for the Churches § 14. Memorand 14. Side not with any faction of contentious
quid vel insalubre manum admoveat Cohibeat Equiso inter equitandum adigat equum per locum praeruptum vel salebrosum cui subsit periculum Etiamne Medico Etiamne Equisoni suo subjectus Rex Sed de Majori potestate loquitur sed â—â ad rem noxiam procul arcendam qua in re Charitatis semper Potestas est maxima Here you see what Church Government is and how Kings are under it and how not in Bishop Andrews sense for my part I would rather obey the Laws of the King than the Canons of the Bishops if they should disagree 3. But in cases common to both in which the Pastors Office is more nearly and fully concerned than the Magistrates the case is more difficult As at what hour the Church shall assemble What part of Scripture shall be read What Text the Minister shall preach on How long Prayer or Sermon or other Church-exercises shall be What Prayers the Minister shall use In what method he shall preach and what doctrine he shall deliver and the people hear with many such like These do most nearly belong to the Pastoral Office to judge of as well as to execute But yet in some cases the Mâ—gistrate may interpose his authority And herein 1. If the one party do determine clearly to the necessary preservation of Religion and the other to the ruine of it the disparity of consequents makeeth a great disparity in the case For here God himself hath predetermined who commandeth that all be done to â—dification As for instance If a Christian Magistrate ordain that no assembly shall consist of above forty or an hundred persons when there are so many Preachers and places of meeting that it is no detriment to mens souls and especially when the danger of infection or other evil warranteth it then I would obey that command of the Magistrate though the Pastors of the Church were against it and commanded fuller meetings But if a Iulian should command the same thing on purpose to wear out the Christian Religion and when it tendeth to the ruine of mens souls as 〈…〉 399 saâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 of Bâ—shops in thâ—se dayes â—eloâ—ged to the people and not the Prâ—â—ce and though Valens by pâ—ain force placed Luâ—ius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no Bishop and cleave to Peter their right Pastor when Preachers are so few that either more must meet together or most must be untaught and excluded from Gods Worship here I would rather obey the Pastors that command the contrary because they do but deliver the command of God who determineth consequentially of the necessary means when he determineth of the â—nd But if the consequents of the Magistrates and the Pastors commands should be equally indifferent and neither of them discernably Good or Bad the difficulty then would be at the highest and such as I shall not here presume to determine No doubt but the King is the Supream Governour over all the Schools and Physicions and Hospitals in the Land that is he is the Supream in the Civil Coercive Government He is Supream Magistrate over Divines Physicions and Schoolmasters but not the Supream Divine Physicion or Schoolmaster When there is any work for the Office of the Magistrate that is for the sword among any of them it belongeth only to Him and not at all to them But when there is any work for the Divine the Physicion the Schoolmaster or if you will for the Shoomaker the Taylor the Watch-maker this belongeth not to the King to do or give particular commands for but yet it is all to Too many particular Laws about little maâ—ters breed contention Alex. Severus would have dâ—stinguished all orders of men by their apparel Sâ—d hoc Ulpiano Paulo dispâ—icuit dicentibus plurimum rixarum fore â—i faciles essent homines ad injurias and the Emperour yielded to them Lamâ—rid iâ— Alex. Sever. Lipsius Ubi leges multae ibi lites multae vita moresque pravi Non mulâ—ae leges bonos mâ—res faciunt sed pauâ—ae fideliter servatae be done under his Government and on special causes he may make Laws to force them all to do their several works aright and to restrain them from abuses As to clear the case in hand the King is informed that Physicions take too great Fees of their Patients that some through ignorance and some through covetousness give ill compounded Medicines and pernicious Drugs No doubt but the King by the advice of understanding men may forbid the use of such Drugs as are found pernicious to his Subjects and may regulate not only the Fees but the Compositions and Attendances of Physicions But if he should command that a man in a Feavor or Dropsie or Consumption shall have no Medicine but this or that and so oft and in such or such a dose and with such or such a dyet and the Physicions whom my reason bindeth me to trust and perhaps my own experience also do tell me that all these things are bad for me and different tempers and accidents require different remedies and that I am like to dye or hazard my health if I obey not them contrary to the Kings commands here I should rather obey my Physicions partly because else I should sin against God who commandeth me the preservation of my life and partly because this matter more belongeth to the Physicion than to the Magistrate Mr. Rich. Hooker Eccl. Polit. lib. 8. p. 223 224. giveth you the Reason more fully § 54. Direct 25. Give not the Magistrates Power to any other whether to the People on pretence of Direct 25. their Majestas Realis as they call it or to the Pope or Prelates or Pastors of the Church upon pretence of authority from Christ or of the distinction of Ecclesiastical Government and Civil The peoples pretensions to Natural Authority or Real Majesty or Collation of Power I have consuted before and more elsewhere The Popes Prelates and Pastors power of the Sword in Causes Ecclesiastical is disproved so fully by Bishop Bilson ubi supra and many more that it is needless to say much more of it All Protestants so far as I know are agreed that no Bishop or Pastor hath any power of the Sword that is of Coercion or force upon men bodies liberties or estates except as Magistrates derived from their Soveraign Their spiritual power is only upon Consenters in the use of Gods Word upon the N. B. Quae habet Andrews Tort. Tort. p. 310. Quando apud vos dictio juris exterior Clavis proprie non sit eamque voâ— multis saepe mandatis qui Laicorum in soâ—te sunt exortes sane sacri ordinis universi Conscience either generally in preaching or with personal application in Discipline No Courts or Commands can compell any to appear or submit nor lay the mulct of a penny upon any but by their own consent or the Magistrates authority But this the Papists will few
proved and let him be admonished and censured as it deserves Censured I say not for not subscribing more than Scripture but for corrupting the Scriptures to which he hath subscribed or breaking Gods Laws which he promised to observe § 59. Direct 37. The Good of men and not their ruine must be intended in all the Discipline Direct 37. of the Church Or the good of the Church when we have but little hope of theirs If this were done it would easily be perceived that persecution is an unlikely means to do good by § 60. Direct 38. Neither unlimited Liberty in matters of Religion must be allowed nor unnecessary Direct 38. force and rigour used but Tolerable differences and parties must be tolerated and intolerable ones by the wisest means supprest And to this end by the Counsel of the most prudent peaceable Divines the Tollerable and the Intollerable must be statedly distinguished And those that are only Tolerated must be under a Law for their Toleration prescribing them their terms of good behaviour and those that are Approved must moreover have the Countenance and Maintenance of the Magistrate And if this were done 1. The advantage of the said Encouragement from Governours 2. With the regulation of the the toleration and the Magistrates careful Government of the Tolerated would prevent both persecution and most of the divisions and calamities of the Church Thus did the ancient Christian Emperours and Bishops And was their experience nothing The Novatians as good and Orthodox men were allowed their own Churches and Bishops even in Constantinople at the Emperours nose Especially if it be made the work of some Justices 1. To judge of persons to be tolerated and grant them Patents 2. And to over-rule them and punish them when they deserve it No other way would avoid so many inconveniences § 61. Direct 39. The things intolerable are these two 1. Not the believing but the Direct 39. preaching and propagating of principles contrary to the essentials of Godliness or Christianity or Government Iustice Charity or Peace 2. The turbulent unpeaceable management of those opinions which in themselves are tollerable If any would Preach against the Articles of the Creed the Petitions of the Lords Prayer or any of the Ten Commandments he is not to be suffered And if any that is Orthodox do in their separated meetings make it their business to revile at others and destroy mens Charity or to stir men up to rebellion or sedition or contempt of Magistracy none of this should be endured § 62. As for those Libertines that under the name of Liberty of Conscience do plead for a liberty of such vitious practices and in order thereto would prove that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in matters of Religion I have Preached and wrote so much against them whilest that Errour raigned and I find it so unseasonable now the constitution of things looks another way that I will not weary my self and the Reader with so unnecessary a task as to confute them Only I shall say that Rom. 13. telleth us that Rulers are a terrour to them that do evil and that Hereticks and turbulent firebrands do evil therefore Rulers should be a terrour to them And that if all things are to be done to the Glory of God and his interest is to be set highest in the World then Magistrates and Government are for the same end And if no action which we do is of so base a nature as ultimately to be terminated in the concernments of the flesh much less is Government so vile a thing when Rulers are in Scripture called Gods as being the Officers of God § 63. Direct 40. Remember Death and live together as men that are neer dying and must live Direct 40. together in another world The foolish expectation of prosperity and long life is it which setteth men together by the ears When Ridley and Hooper were both in Prison and preparing for the flames their contentions were soon ended and Ridley repented of his persecuting way If the persecutors and persecuted were shut up together in one house that hath the Plague in the time of this lamentable Contagion it 's two to one but they would be reconciled When men see that they are going into another World it takes off the edge of their bitterness and violence and the apprehensions of the righteous judgement of God doth awe them into a patience and forbearance with each other Can you persecute that man on Earth with whom you look to dwell in Heaven But to restrain a man from damning souls by Heresie or turbulencie or any such course my Conscience would not forbid it me if I were dying § 64. Direct 41. Let the Proud themselves who will regard no higher motives remember how Direct 41. fame and History will represent them to posterity when they are dead There is no man that desireth his name should stink and be odious to future Generations There is nothing that an ambitious man desireth more than a great surviving name And will you knowingly and wilfully then expose it to perpetual contempt and hatred Read over what History you please and find out the name of one Persecutor if you can that is not now a word of ignominy and doth not rott as God hath threatened If you say that it is only in the esteem of such as I or the persecuted party neither your opinion shall be judge nor mine but the opinion and language of Historians and of the wisest men who are the masters of fame Certainly that report of Holy Scripture and History which hath prevailed will still prevail And while there are Wise and Good and Merciful men in the World the Names and Manners of the Foolish and Wicked and Cruel will be odious as they continue at this day § 65. I have wrote these Directions to discharge my duty for those that are willing to escape the guilt of so desperate a sin But not with any expectation at all that it should do much good with any considerable number of persecutors For they will not read such things as these And God seldom giveth professed Christians over to this sin till they have very grievously blinded their minds and hardened their hearts and by malignity and obstinacy are prepared for his 2 Tim. 3. 11 12. Mat 5. 11 12. Luk. 14. 26 33. sorest judgements And I know that whoever will live Godly in Christ Iesus It is not said Who professeth to believe in Christ Iesus but to live Godly shall suffer persecution and that the Cross must still be the passage to the Crown CHAP. XII Directions against Scandal as given § 1. SCandal being a murdering of souls is a violation of the general Law of Charity and of the sixth Commandment in particular In handling this subject I shall 1. Shew you what is true scandal given to another 2. What things go under the Name of Scandal which are not it but are falsly so
is the way to make the sinner think that it is a small or jeasting matter To perswade men to conversion or a godly life without a melting love and pity to their souls and without the reverence of God and seriousness of mind which the nature and weight of the thing requireth is the way to harden them in their sin and misery All these wayes may a man be guilty 1. Of the sin and 2. The perdition of another § 27. But here on the Negative part take notice of these things following How we are not guilty of other mens â—in or ruine 1. That properly no man doth partake of the same formal numerical sin which is anothers Noxa caput sequitur The sin is individuated and informed by the individual will of the offender It is not possible that another mans sin should be properly and formally mine unless I were individually and formally that same man and not another If two men set their hands to the same evil deed they are distinct causes and subjects of the distinct formal guilt though Con-causes and partial causes of the effect So that it is only by multiplication that we make the sin or guilt of another to become the matter of sin to us the form resulting from our selves § 28. 2. All men that are guilty of the sin and damnation of other men are not equally guilty Not only as some are pardoned upon repentance and some remain impenitent and unpardoned But as some contribute wilfully to the mischief and with delight and in a greater measure and some only in a small degree by an oversight or small omission or weak performance of a duty by meer infirmity or surprize § 29. 3. All that do not hinder sin or reprove it are not guilty of it No more than all that do not punish it But those only that have power and opportunity and so are called by God to do it § 30. 4. If another man will sin and destroy his soul by the occasion of my necessary duty I must not cease my duty to prevent such mens sin or hurt Else one or other will by their perverseness excuse me from almost all the duty which I should do I must not cease praying hearing Sacraments nor withdraw from Church-communion because another will turn it to his sin Else Satan should use the sin of others to frustrate all Gods worship Yet I must add that many things cease to be a duty when another will be so hurt by them § 31. 5. I am not guilty of all mens sins which are committed in my presence no though I know before hand that they will sin For my calling or duty may lead me into the presence of those that I may â—ore know will sin Wicked men sin in all that they do And yet it followeth not that I must have nothing to do with them Many a failing which is his sin may a Minister or Church be guilty of even in that publick Worship of God which yet I am bound to be present at But of all these somewhat is said before Chap. 12. CHAP. XV. General Directions for the furthering of the salvation of others THE great Means which we must use for the salvation of our Neighbours are § 1. Direct 1. Sâ—und Doctrine Let those who are their instructors inculcate the wholsome Principles of Godliness which are Self-denyal Mortification the Love of God and man the Hopes of Heaven universal absolute obedience to God and all this by faith in Iesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures Instead of Novelties or vain janglings and perverse disputings teach them these Principles here Direct 1. briefly named over and over an hundred times Open these plainly till they are well understood These are the necessary saving things This is the doctrine which is according to godliness which will make sound Christians of sound judgements sound hearts sound conversations and sound consciences God sanctifieth his chosen ones by these Truths § 2. Direct 2. Therefore do your best to help others to the benefit of able and faithful Pastors and Direct 2. Instructers A fruitful soil is not better for your seed nor a good pasture for your Horse or Cattel nor wholsome dyet for your selves than such instructers are for your neighbours souls If you love them you should be more desirous to help them to good Teachers or plant them under a sound and powerful Ministry than to procure them any worldly benefits One time or other the Word may prevail with them It is hopeful to be still in mercies way § 3. Direct 3. The concord of their Teachers among themselves is a great help to the saving of the Direct 3. flock John 17. 21 25. 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 Concord much furthereth reverence and belief and consequently mens salvation so it be a holy concord § 4. Direct 4. The Concord also of godly private Christians hath the same effect When the ignorant Direct 4. see here a Sect and there a Sect and hear them condemning one another it teacheth them to contemn them all and think contemptibly of piety it self But concord layeth an awe upon them § 5. Direct 5. The blameless humble loving heavenly lives of Christians is a powerful means of Direct 5. winning souls Preach therefore every one of you by such a conversation to all your neighbours whom you desire to save § 6. Direct 6. Keep those whom you would save in a humble patient learning posture and keep Direct 6. them from proud wranglings and running after novelties and Sects The humble Learner takes root downward and silently groweth up to wisdom But if once they grow self conceited they turn to wranglings and place their Religion in espoused singular Opinions and in being on this or that side or Church and fall into divided Congregations where the business is to build up souls by destroying Charity and teaching Sectaries to overvalue themselves and despise dissenters Till at last they run themselves out of breath and perhaps fall out with all true Religion § 7. Direct 7. Do what you can to place them in good families and when they are to be maâ—â—ied Direct 7. to joyn them to such as are fit to be their helpers In families and relations of that sort people are so near together and in such constant converse that it will be very much of the help or hinderance of their salvation § 8. Direct 8. Keep them also as much as is possible in good company and out of bad seducing Direct 8. company Especially those that are to be their familiars The worlds experience telleth us what power Company hath to make men better or worse And what a great advantage it is to work any thing on mens minds to have interest in them and intimacy with them Especially with those
that the fleshly mind which is enmity against God should be ready to do good to the spiritual and holy servants of God Gen. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 6 7 8. Or that a selfish man should much care for any body but himself and his own When Love is turned into the hatred of each other upon the account of our partial interests and opinions and when we are like men in war that think he is the bravest most deserving man that hath killed most when men have bitter hateful thoughts of one another and set themselves to make each other odious and to ruine them that they may stand the faster and think that destroying them is good service to God who can look for the fruits of Love from damnable uncharitableness and hatred or that the Devils tree should bring forth holy fruit to God 4. And then when Love is well-spoken of by all even its deadly enemies lest men should see their wickedness and misery and is it not admirable that they see it not the Devil hath taught them to play the Hypocrites and make themselves a Religion which costs them nothing without true Christian Love and Good works that they may have something to quiet and cheat their consciences with One man drops now and then an inconsiderable gift and another oppresseth and hateth and destroyeth and slandereth and censureth that he may not be thought to hate and ruine without cause and when they have done they wipe their mouths with a few Hypocritical prayers or good words and and think they are good Christians and God will not be avenged on them One thinks that God will save him because he is of this Church and another because he is of another Church One thinks to be saved because he is of this opinion and party in Religion and another because he is of that One thinks he is religious because he saith his prayers this way and another because he prayeth another way And thus dead Hypocrites whose hearts were never quickened with the powerful Love of God to love his servants their neighbours and enemies do perswade themselves that God will save them for mocking and flattering him with the service of their deceitful lips while they want the Love of God which is the root of all Good and are possessed with the Love of money which is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. and are Lovers of pleasures more than God 2 Tim. 3. 4. They will joyn themselves forwardly to the cheap and outside actions of Religion but when they hear much less than One thing thou yet wantest sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have a treasure in Heaven they are very sorrowful because they are very rich Luk. 18. 22 23. Such a fruitless love as they had to others Iam. 2. such a fruitless Religion they have as to themselves For pure Religion and undefiled before God is to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity and to keep your selves unspotted from the world James 1. 27. See 1 Joh. 2. 15. 3. 17. Whâ—sâ— hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compâ—ssion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him There are specially three Texts that describe the case of sensual uncharitable Gentlemen 1. Luk. 16. A Rich man cloathed in purple and silk for so as Dr. Hammond noteth it should rather be translated and fared sumptuously every day you know the end of him 2. Ezek. 16. 49. Sodoms sin was Pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy 3. James 5. 1 to 7. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you Ye have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in or for the day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you And remember Prov. 21. 13. Whoso stoppeth his cars at the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself and shall not be heard And Jam. 2. 13. He shall have judgement without mercy that shewed no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgement Yea in this life it is oft observable Prov. 11. 24. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that with-holdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty Tit. 2. Directions for works of Charity Direct 1. LOve God and be renewed to his image and then it will be natural to you to do good Direct 1. and his Love will be in you a fountain of good works Direct 2. Love your Neighbours and it will be easie to you to do them all the good you can As it Direct 2. is to do good to your selves or Children or dearest friends Direct 3. Learn self-denyal that selfishness may not cause you to be all for youâ—â—lelves and be Satans Direct 3. Law of Nature in you forbidding you to do good to others Direct 4. Mortifie the flesh and the vices of sensuality Pride and Curiosity Gluttony and drunkenness Direct 4. are insatiable gulfs and will devour all and leave but little for the poor Though there be never so many poor families which want bread and clothing the Proud person must first have the other silk Gown or the other ornaments which may set them out with the forwardest in the mode and fashion and this house must first be handsomelyer built and these rooms must first be neatlier furnished and these Children must first have finer cloaths Let Lazarus lye never so miserable at the door the sensualist must be cloathed in purple and silk and fare deliciously and sumptuously daily Luke 16. The glutton must have thâ— dish and cup which pleaseth his appetite and must keep a full Table for the entertainment of his companions that have no need These insatiable vices are like Swine and Dogs that devour all the Childrens bread Even vain recreations and gaming shall have more bestowed on them than Church or poor as to any voluntary gift Kill your greedy vices once and then a little will serve your turns and you may have wherewith to relieve the needy and do that which will be better to you at your reckoning day Direct 5. Let not self isâ—ness make your Children the inordinate objects of your charity and provision Direct 5. to take up that which should be otherwise employed Carnal and worldly persons would perpetuate their vice and when they can live no longer themselves they seem to be half alive in their posterity and what they can no longer keep themselves they think is best laid up for their Children to feed them as full and make them as sensual and unhappy as themselves So that just and moderate provisions will not satisfie them but their Childrens Portions must be as much as they can get and almost all their Estates are sibi suis for themselves and theirs And
revived who came to the assembly or to their pastors in great distress and allmost in despair See Iob 33. 23. 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. It is the office and delight of the Ministers of Christ to be helpers of his peoples faith and joy 2 Cor. 1. 24. Phil. 1. 4 25. 1 Thes. 2. 20. § 16. Direct 14. Make use of all that Prosperity and lawful pleasure which God giveth you in outward Direct 14. things for the increase and advantage of your Delight in God Though corrupted nature is apter to abuse Prosperity and earthly delights than any other state to the diverting of the heart from God and allmost all the Devils poyson is given in sugered or guilded allectives yet the primitive natural use of prosperity of health and plenty and honour and peace is to lead up the mind to God and give us a tast of his spiritual delights That the neighbourhood of the Body might be the souls advantage and that God who in this life will be seen by us but in a glass and will give out his comforts by his appointed means might make advantage of sensitive delights for his own reception and the communications of his Love and pleasure unto man That as soon as the eye or ear or tast perceiveth the delightfulness of their several objects the holy soul might presently take the hint and motion and be carried up to delightful thoughts of him that giveth us all these delights And doubtless so far as we can make use of a Delight in friends or food or health or habitations or any accomodations of our Bodies to further our Delight in God or to remove those melancholy fears or sorrows which would hinder this spiritual Delight it is not only Lawful but our duty to use them with that moderation as tendeth to this end § 17. Direct 15. Make use of affliction as a great advantage for your purest and unmixt delight in Direct 15. God The servants of Christ have usually never so much of the joy in the Holy Ghost as in their greatest sufferings especially if they be for his sake The soul never retireth so readily and delightfully to God as when it hath no one else that will receive it or that it can take any comfort from God comforteth us most when he hath made us see that none else can or will relieve us When all friends have forsaken us save only one that one is sweeter to us then than ever When all our house is â—â—red down except one room that room is pleasanter to us than it was before He that hath lost one eye will love the other better than before In prosperity our Delights in God are too often corrupted by a mixture of sensual delight But all that remaineth when the creature is gone is purely Divine § 18. Direct 16. Labour by self-examination deliberately managed under the direction of an able Direct 16. spiritual Guide to settle your souls in the well-grounded perswasion of your special interest in God and Heaven And then suffer not Satan by his troublesome importunity to renew your doubts or molest your peace An Orderly well-guided diligent self-examination may quickly do much to shew you your condition And if you are convinced that the truth of Grace is in you let not fears and suspicion go for reason and cause you to deny that which you cannot without the gainsaying of your Consciences deny You see not the design of the Devil in all this His business is by making you fear that you have no interest in God to destroy your Delight in him and in his service And next that to make you through weariness forsake him and either despair or turn to sensual delights Foresee and prevent these designs of Satan and suffer him not at his pleasure to raise new storms of fears and troubles and draw you to deny your Fathers mercies or to suspect his proved love § 19. Direct 17. Damp not your Delights by willful sin If you grieve your Comforter he will Direct 17. grieve you or leave you to grieve your selves In that measure that any known sin is cherished Delight in God will certainly decay § 20. Direct 18. Improve your observation of wicked mens sensual delights to provoke your souls Direct 18. to delight in God Think with your selves shall hawks and hounds and pride and filthyness and cards and dice and playes and sports and luxury and idleness and foolish talk or worldly honours be so delightful to these deluded sinners and shall not my God and Saviour his Love and promises and the hopes of Heaven be more delightful to me Is there any comparison between the matter of my delights and theirs § 21. Direct 19. Labour to overcome those fears of Death which would damp your Iâ—ys in the Direct 19. foresight of Everlasting joyes As nothing more feedeth Holy delights than the fore-thoughts of Heaven so there is scarce any thing that more hindreth our delight in those forethoughts than the fear of interposing death See what I have written against this fear in my Treatise of Self-denyal and Saints Rest and in my Treatise of Death as the last enemy and in my Last work of a Believer § 22. Direct 20. Pretend not any other Religious duties against your Delight in God and Holiness Direct 20. but use them all in their proper subserviencie to this Penitent sorrow is only a purge to cast out those corruptions which hinder you from relishing your spiritual delights Use it therefore as Physick only when there is need and not for it self but only to this end and turn it not into your ordinary food Delight in God is the Health of your souls Say not you cannot have while to be heathful because you must take physick or that you take Physick against Health or instead of health but for your health So take up no sorrow against your Delight in God or instead of it but for it and so much as promoteth it See the Directions for Love beforegoing § 23. By this time you may see that Holy Delight adjoyned to Love is the principal part of our Religion and that they mistake it which place it in any thing else And therefore how unexcusable are all the ungodly enemies or neglectâ—rs of a holy life If it had been a life of grief and toyle they had had some pretense But to fly from pleasure and refuse delight and such delight is unexcusable Be it known to you sinners God calleth you not to forsake Delight but to accept it To change your Delight in sin and vanity for Delight in him you dare not say but this is better you cannot have your houses and lands for ever nor your lust and luxury for ever but you may have God for ever And do you hope to live for ever with him and have you no Delight in him Men deal with Christ as the Papists with the Reformed Churches Because we reject their formalities and ceremonious toyes
they say we take down all Religion so because we would call men from their bruitish pleasures they say we would let them have no pleasure For the Epicure thinks when his luxury lust and sport is gone all is gone Call a sluggard from his bed or a glutton from his feast to receive a Kingdom and he will grudge if he observe only what you would take from him and not what you give him in its stead When earthly pleasures end in misery then who would not wish they had preferred the Holy durable Delights DIRECT XIV Let Thankfulness to God thy Creator Redeemer and Regenerater be the very Gr. Dir. 14. For a life of Thankfulness temperament of thy soul and faithfully expressed by thy Tongue and Life § 1. THough our Thankfulness is no benefit to God yet he is pleased with it as that which is suitable to our condition and sheweth the ingenuity and honesty of the Heart An unthankful person is but a devourer of mercies and a grave to bury them in and one that hath not the wit and honesty to know and acknowledge the hand that giveth them But the Thankful looketh above himself and returneth all as he is able to him from whom they flow § 2. True Thankfulness to God is discerned from Counterfeit by these qualifications 1. True Thankfulness having a just estimate of mercies comparatively preferreth spiritual and everlasting mercies before those that are meerly corporal and transitory But carnal Thankfulness chiefly valueth carnal Mercies though notionally it may confess that the spiritual are the greater 2. True Thankfulness inclineth the soul to a spiritual rejoycing in God and to a desire after more of his spiritual mercies But carnal thankfulness is only a delight in the prosperity of the flesh or the delusion and carnal security of the mind inclining men to carnal empty mirth and to a desire of more such fleshly pleasure plenty or content As a Beast that is full fed will skip and play and shew that he is pleased with his state or if he have ease he would not be molested 3. True thankfulness kindleth in the heart a love to the Giver above the Gift or at least a Love to God above our Carnal prosperity and pleasure and bringeth the heart still nearer unto God by all his mercies But carnal thankfulness doth spring from Carnal self-love or love of fleshly prosperity and is moved by it and is subservient to it and Loveth God and Thanketh him but so far as he gratifieth or satisfieth the flesh A child-like Thankfulness maketh us love our Father more than his gift and desire to be with him in his arms But a Dog doth love you and is thankful to you but for feeding him He loveth you in subordination to his appetite and his bones 4. True Thankfulness inclineth us to obey and please him that obligeth us by his benefits But carnal thankfulness puts God off with the hypocritical complemental thanks of the lips and spends the mercy in the pleasing of the flesh and makes it but the fewell of lust and sin 5. True thankfulness to God is necessarily transcendent as his mercies are transcendent The saving of our souls from Hell and promising us eternal life besides the giving us our very beings and all that we have do oblige us to be totally and obsolutely his that is so transcendent a Benefactor to us and causeth the thankful person to devote and resign himself and all that he hath to God to answer so great an obligation But carnal thankfulness falls short of this absolute and total dedication and still leaveth the sinner in the power of self-love devoting himself really to himself and using all that he is or hath to the pleasing of his fleshly mind and giving God only the tythes or leavings of the flesh or so much as it can spare lest he should stop the streams of his benignity and bereave the flesh of its prosperity and contents § 3. Directions for Thankfulness to God our Benefactor Direct 1. Understand well how great this duty is in the nature of the thing but especially how the Direct 1. very design and tenour of the Gospel and the way of our salvation by a Redeemer bespeaketh it as the very complexion of the soul and of every duty A creature that is wholly his Creators and is preserved every moment by him and daily fed and maintained by his bounty and is put into a capacity of life eternal must needs be obliged to uncessant Gratitude And Unthankfulness among men is justly taken for an unnatural monstrous vice which forfeiteth the benefits of friendship and society 2 Tim. 3. 2. The unthankful are numbred with the unholy c. as part of the monsters which should come in the last times and which we have lived to see exactly answering that large description of them But the Design of God in the work of Redemption is purposely laid for the raising of the highest Thankfulness in man and the Covenant of Grace containeth such abundant wonderous Mercies as might compell the souls of men to Gratitude or leave them utterly without excuse It is a great truth and much to be considered that Gratitude is that general duty of the Gospel ☜ which containeth and animateth all the rest as being Essential to all that is properly Evangelical A Law as a Law requireth Obedience as the general duty and this Obedience is to be exercised and found in every particular duty which it requireth And the Covenant with the Jews was called The Law because the Regulating part was most eminent and so obedience was the thing that was eminently required by the Law though their measure of mercy obliged them also to thankfulness But the Gospel or New Covenant is most eminently a history of Mercy and a tender and promise of the most unmatchable benefits that ever were heard of by the ears of man so that the Gift of Mercy is the predominant or eminent part in the Gospel or New Covenant and though still God be our Governour and Gratitude is to the Promise much what Obedience is to the Law the New Covenant also hath its Precepts and is a Law yet that is in a sort but the subservient part And what obedience is to a Law that Thankfulness is to a Benefit even the formal answering of its obligation so that though we are called to as exact obedience as ever yet it is now only a Thankfull Obedience that we are called to And just as Law and Promises or Gifts are conjoyned in the New Covenant just so should Obedience and Thankfulness be conjoyned in our hearts and lives one to God as our Ruler and the other to him as our Benefactor And thâ—se two must animate every act of heart and life We must Repent of sin but it must be a Thankful Repenting as becometh those that have a free pardon of all their sins procured by the blood of Christ and offered them in the
confused 5. They will differ in spiritual health and soundnâ—ss one will be more Orthodox and another more erroneous one will have a better appetite to the wholsome word than others 15. 1. 1 Cor. 8 7 10 12. that are inclining to novelties and vain janglings one will walk more blamelesly than another some are full of Joy and peace and others full of grief and trouble 6. They differ much in usefulness 9. 22. Act. 20. 35. Luk. 1. 6. Phil. 2. 15. Gal. 2. 9 11 13 14. and service to the Body some are Pillars to support the rest and some are burdensome and troublers of the Church 7. It is the will of Christ that they differ in Office and employment some being Pastors and Teachers to the rest 8. There may be much difference in the manner of their worshipping God some observing dayes and difference of meats and drinks and forms and other 1 Thes. 5 4. 1 Cor. 3. 1 4. 5. Eph. 4. 11 12 13. Ceremonies which others observe not And several Churches may have several modes 9. These differences may possibly by the temptation of Satan arise to vehement contentions and not only to the censuring and despisâ—ng of each other but to the rejecting of each other from the Communion Rom. 14. 15. Col. 2. 18 22. Phil. 2. 20 21. 1 Cor. 12. 22 24. of the several Churches and forbidding one another to Preach the Gospel and the banishing or imprisoning one another as Constantine himself did banish Athanasius and as Chrysostom and many another have felt 10. Hence it followeth that as in the Visible Church some are the members of Christ and some are indeed the Children of the Devil some shall be saved and some be damned 1 Sam. 2. 30. Mat. 23. 11. Luk. 22. 26. Mat. 20. 23. Luk. 20. 3â— Mat. 19. 30. Mat. 20. 16. even with the â—orest damnation the greatest difference in the World to come being betwixt the visible members of the Church so among the Godly and sincere themselves they are not all alike amiable or happy but they shall differ in Glory as they do in Grace All these differences there have been are and will be in the Church notwithstanding its unity in other things § 11. III. The word Schism cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disseco lacero and signifieth any sinful Division Schism what and of how many sorts The true placing the Bonds of Unity importeth exceedingly Which will be done if the points fundamental and of substance in Religion were truly discerned and distinguished from points not meerly of faith but of Opinion Order or good intention This is a thing that may seem to many a matter trivial and done already but if â—t were done less partially it would be embraced more generally L. Baâ—on Essay 3. among Christians some Papists as Iohnson will have nothing called Schism but a Dividing ones self from the Catholick Church Others maintain that there is nothing in Scripture called Schism but making divisions in particular Churches The truth is obvious in the thing it self that there are several sorts of Schism or Division 1. There is a causing Divisions in a particular Church when yet no party divideth from that Church much less from the Universal Thus Paul blameth the Divisions that were among the Corinthians while one said I am of Paul and another I am of Apâ—llo c. 1 Cor. 3. 3. And 1 Cor. 11. 18. I hear that there be divisions among you not that they separated from each others Communion but held a disorderly Communion Such divisions he vehemently disswadeth them from 1 Cor. 1. 10. And thus he perswadeth the Romans 16. 17. to mark them which cause Divisions and offences among them contrary to the doctrine which they had learned and avoid them which it seems therefore were not such as had avoided the Church first He that causeth differences of judgement and practice and contendings in the Church doth cause Divisions though none separate from the Church 2. And if this be a fault it must be a greater fault to cause Divisions from as well as in a particular Church which a man may do that separateth not from it himself As if he perswade others to separate or if he sow those tares of errour which cause it or if he causlesly excommunicate or cast them out 3. And then it must be as great a sin to make a causeless separation from the Church that you are in your self which is another sort of Schism If you may not Divide in the Church nor Divide others from the Church then you may not causelesly Divide from it your selves 4. And it is yet a greater Schism when you Divide not only from that one Church but from many because they concur in opinion with that one which is the common way of Dividers 5. And it is yet a greater Schism when whole Churches separate from each other and renounce due Communion with each other without just cause as the Greeks Latines and Protestants in their present distance must some of them whoever it is be found guilty 6. And yet it is a greater Schism than this when Churches do not only separate from each other causelesly but also unchurch each other and endeavour to cut off each other from the Church-Universal by denying each other to be true Churches of Christ. It is a more grievous Schism to withdraw from a true Church as no-Church than as a corrupt-Church that is to cut off a Church from Christ and the Church-Catholick than to abstain from Communion with it as a scandalous or offending Church 7. It is yet caeteris paribus a higher degree of Schism to Divide your selves a person or a Church from the Universal Church without just cause though you separate from it but secundum quid in some accidental respect where unity is needfull For where Unity is not required there dis-union is no sin Yet such a person that is separate but secundum quid from something accidental or integral but not essential to the Catholick Church is still a Catholick Christian though he sin 8. But as for the highest degree of all viz. to separate from the Universal-Church simpliciter or in some Essential respect this is done by nothing but by Heresie or Apostacie However the Papists make men believe that Schismaticks that are neither Hereticks nor Apostates do separate themselves wholly or simply from the Catholick Church this is a meer figment of their brains For he that separateth not from the Church in any thing essential to it doth not truly and simply separate from the Church but secundum quid from something separable from the Church But whatever is A Heretick and Apostate what essential to the Church is necessary to salvation And he that separateth from it upon the account of his denying any thing necessary to salvation is an Heretick or an Apostate that is If he do it as dâ—nying some one or more Essential point of
tempted to Popery or Infidelity In some Countreys they learn to drink Wine instead of Beer and arising from the smaller sort to the stronger if they turn not drunkards they contract that appetite to Wine and strong drink which shall prove as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth gluttony and tipling a Throat-madness and a Belly-devil and keep them in the sin of gulosity all their dayes And in some Countreys they shall learn the art of Gluttony to pamper their guts in curious costly uncouth fashions and to dress themselves in novel fantastical garbs and to make a business of adorning themselves and setting themselves forth with proud and procacious fancies and affections to be lookt upon as comely persons to the eyes of others In some Countreys they shall learn to waste their precious hours in Stage-playes and vain spectacles and ceremonious attendances and visits and to equalize their life with death and to live to less use and benefit to the world than the Horse that carryeth them In most Countreys they shall learn either to prate against Godliness as the humour of a few melancholy fools and be wiser than to believe God or obey him or be saved or at least to grow indifferent and cold in holy affections and practices For when they shall see Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Calvinists of contrary minds and hear them reproaching and condemning one another this cooleth their zeal to all Religion as seeming but a matter of uncertainty and contention And when also they see how the wise and holy are made a scorn in one Countrey as Bigots and Hugonots and how the Protestants are drunkards and worldlings in another Countrey and how few in the world have any true sense and savour of sound and practical Religion and of a truly holy and heavenly life as those few they are seldome so happy as to converse with this first accustometh themselves to a neglect of holiness and then draweth their minds to a more low indifferent opinion of it and to think it unnecessary to salvation For they will not believe that so few shall be saved as they find to be holy in the world And then they grow to think it but a fancy and a troubler of the world And it addeth to their temptation that they are obliged by the carnal ends which drew them out Read Bishop Halls Quo Vadis on this subject to be in the worst and most dangerous company and places that is at Princes Courts and among the splendid gallantry of the world For it is the fashions of the Great ones which they must see and of which when they come home they must be able to discourse So that they must travel to the Pesthouses of pomp and lust of idleness gluâ—â—ony drunkenness and pride of Atheism irreligiousness and impiety that they may be able to glory what acquaintance they have got of the grandeur and gallantry of the Suburbs of Hell that they may represent the way to damnation delectable and honourable to others as well as to themselves But the greatest danger is of corrupting their Intellectuals by converse with deceivers where they come either Infidels or jugling Iesuits and Fryars For when these are purposely trained up to deceive how easie is it for them to silence raw unfurnished Novices yea even where all their five senses must be captivated in the doctrine of Transubstantiation And when they are silenced they must yield or at least they have deluding stories enough of the Antiquity Universality Infallibility Unity of their Church with a multitude of lyes of Luther Calvin Zuinglius and other Reformers to turn their hearts and make them yield But yet that they may be capable of doing them the more service they are instructed for a time to dissemble their perversion and to serve the Roman Pride and Faction in a Protestant garb and name Especially when they come to Rome and see its glory and the monuments of antiquity and are alluned with their splendour and civilities and made believe that all the reports of their Inquisitions and cruelties are false this furthereth the fascination of unexperienced youths 2. And usually all this while the most of them lay by all serious studies and all constant employment and make Idleness and Converse with the Idle or with Tempters to be their daily work And what a mind is like to come to which is but one half year or twelvemonth accustomed to idleness and vain spectacles and to a pleasing converse with idle and luxurious persons it is easie for a man of any acquaintance with the world or with humane nature to conjecture 3. And they go forth in notable peril of their health or lives Some fall into Feavors and dye by change of air and drinks Some fall into quarrels in Taverns or about their Whores and are murdered Some few prove so steadfast against all the temptations of the Papists that it is thought conducible to the holy cause that they should be killed in pretence of some quarrel or be poysoned Some by drinking Wine do contract such sickness as makes their lives uncomfortable to the last And the brains of many are so heated by it that they fall mad 4. And all this danger is principally founded in the quality of the persons sent to travel which Peregrinaâ—io â—evia taedâ—a quaedam animorum veâ—uâ—i nause as toâ—â—â—â—t Non tollâ—t mâ—rbos quâ— altiuâ— penetrarunt quam â—t externa ulla m dicina huc pâ—râ— ngâ—t Id. eb are ordinarily empty Lads between eighteen and twenty four years of age which is the time of the Devils chief advantage when naturally they are proâ—e to those Vices which prove the ruine of the most though you take the greatest care of them that you can 1. Their lust is then in the highest and most untamed rage 2. Their appetites to pleasing meats and drinks are then strongest 3. Their frolick inclinations to sports and recreations are then greatest 4. And ignorant and procacious Pride beginneth then to stir 5. All things that are most Vile and Vain are then apt to seem excellent to them by reason of the novelty of the matter as to them who never saw such things before and by reason of the false esteem of those carnal persons to whose pomp and consequently to whose judgement they would be conformed 6. And they are at that age exceedingly inclined to think all their own apprehensions to be right and to be very confident of their own conceptions and wise in their own eyes Because their juvenile intellect being then in the most affecting activity it seemeth still clear and sure to them because it so much affects themselves 7. But above all they are yet unfurnished of almost all that solid wisdome and setled holiness and large experience which is most necessary to their improvement of their travels and to their resistance of all these temptations Alas how few of them are able to deal with a Jesuite or hold fast their Religion against
deceivers If the very Vices the Ambition the Carnal Policies and Pomps the filthiness and worldliness of the Roman Clergy did not become a preservative to mens minds against the Temptations which would draw them to their way and if the Atheism Infidelity Whoredoms and prophaneness of Papists did not become an Antidote how few were like to return uninfected And because the Jesuits know that they can never take this stumbling block out of the way therefore too many of them have thought best to debauch those first whom they would proselyte and to reconcile them first to Playes and drunkenness and whoredoms that so the dislike of these may not hinder their reconciliation with the Kingdom of Rome yea that a seeming necessity of a Priests pardon may make it seem necessary to become their subjects And as unfurnished are these young travellers usually to resist the temptations to this sensuality lust and pomp as those of Popery So that they are perfidiously sent into a Pesthouse when they are in the greatest disposition to be infected And if they come not home drunkards gluttons gamesters idle prodigal proud infidels irreligious or Papists its little thanks to those perfidious Parents who thus perform their promise for them in Baptism by sending them to Satans Schools and University to be educated Whereas if they were but kept to their due studies and under a holy government at home till they were furnished with sound religious knowledge and till they were rooted in holiness and in a Love to a pious sober life and till they had got a setled hatred of intemperance and all sin and till they had a Map of the places persons and affairs of the world well imprinted on their minds by study and due information then necessary travel would be more safe and then they would be in a capacity to learn wisdom from other mens folly and virtue from other mens vice and piety from other mens impiety which Novices are rather apâ— to imitate 5. And in the mean time the loss of all the helps which they should have at home doth greatly tend to their destruction For they oft travel into Countreys where they shall have no publick worship of God which is lawful or which they understand or if they have it is usually cold preaching and dull praying when they have need of the best and all too little And they have seldome such pious society to edifie and quicken them by private converse as they have or might have here at home And seldome come into such well ordered religious families And if humane nature be prone to infection by temptations and so averse to holiness that all means is too little and even in the best families folly and sensuality and a distaste of Godliness often thrives as unsown Weeds overspread the Garden where with great cost and labour only better things were sowed What then but sin and misery can be expected from those that by their own Parents are banished from their native Countrey not so well as into a Wilderness but into the pestilent infected Countreys of the world I would ask those Parents that plead for this crime and cruelty as a kindness Are you no wiser or better your selves than the company into which you send your children Can you teach them and educate them no better nor give them better examples than they are like to have abroad Can you set them on no better work for the improvement of their time If not Why do you not repent of this your shame and misery and reform your selves If you can Why will you then betray your children Congressus sapientum consert prudentiam non montes non maria Erasm. Or if you cannot Are there no Schools no Learned and Pious men no Religious families and company at home in your own Land where you might place them to better advantage than thus to expose them to the Tempter Undoubtedly there are and such as may be had at Cheaper rates 6. And it is not the smallest part of the guilt and danger that they are sent abroad without due oversight and conduct They that do but get them some sober or honest servant to attend them or some sober companion think they have done well when as they had need of some Divine or Tutor of great Learning Piety Prudence and Experience whom they will reverence and obey that may take the oversight of them and be ready to answer any Sophister that would seduce them But the charge of this is thought too great for the safety of their own children whom they themselves expose to a necessity of it I know that carnal minds will distaste all this and have Objections enough against it and reasons of their own to make it seem a duty to betray and undo their childrens souls and to break their promise made for them in Baptism All this is but our preciseness They must have experience and know the world or else they will be contemptible tenebriones or Owls When ever they go it will be a temptation and such they must have at home There is no other part of their age so fit or that can be spared and we must trust God with them where ever they are and they that will be bad will be bad in one place as well as another and many are as bad that stay at home And thus quos perdere vult Iupiter hos dementat Yea the poor children and the Common-wealth must suffer by such Parents soâ—tish folly And well saith Solomon Prov. 28. 11. The Rich man is wise in his own conceit And because it is not Reason indeed but Pride and the Rich disease and Carnality which is here to be consuted I shall not honour them with a distinct particular answer But only tell them If all companies be alike send them to Bedlam or to a Whore-house If all means be alike let them be Janizaries and bred up where Christ is scorned If you think they need but little helps and little watching it seems you never gave them more And its pity you should have children before you know what a man is and how much nature is corrupted and how much is needful to its recovery And its pity that you dedicated them to God in Baptism before you believed Christ and knew what you did And engaged them to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil under a Crucified Christ while you purposed like hypocrites to train them in the School and Service of the World the Flesh and the Devil and in the contempt of the Cross of Christ or of a holy mortified life And if all ages be alike and Novices be equal to experienced persons let the Scholars rule their Master and let Boyes be Parliament men and Judges and let them be your Guides at home And if acquaintance with Courtship and the customes of the world and the reputation of such acquaintance be worth the hazarding of their souls renounce God and give up your