points that no controversies or opinions will shake his faith or destroy his love to God or man Thirdly He will honour God by upright practise and shew forth the power and excellency of religion in the true success upon the heart and life His Religion which begins in solid faith will grow up into sincere Love and good works Fourthly He will be without partiality a Lover of all the servants of Christ and therefore escape temptations to faction and division because his Religion consisteth in those common truths and duties which all profess Fifthly he will not only safely receive all further truths from these principles but all his knowledge and disputes will be sanctified as being all subservient to faith and love and holiness Whereas he that taketh the contrary course and presently falleth to the study of by-opinions and layeth too much upon them will prove too like a superficial hypocrite and a deceiver of himself by thinking that he is something when he is nothing Gal. 6. 5 6. And he will make a pudder in the world for nothing as children do in the house about their babies and their bawbles He will make but an engine of his by-opinions to destroy true Piety and Christian Love in himself first and then in all that will believe him He will first make himself and then many others believe that Religion is nothing but proud self-conceit and faction And he will be the shame of his profession and the hardener of the wicked in their sin and misery by perswading them that the Religious are bnt a few ignorant whimsical fanaticks These are too sad experienced truths DIRECT XXXII Lay not a greater stress upon your different words or manner of prayer than God hath laid And take heed either of scorning reproaching or slighting the words and manner of other mens worship when it is such as God accepteth from the sincere IT is an easie thing to turn the native heat of Religion into a feaverish out-side zeal about words or circumstances or ceremonies whether it be for them or against them O what a wonder is it that by so palpable a trick as thâ—s the Devil should deceive so many and make such a stir and disturbance in the Church I know that one party will cry up Order the other will cry up Spirituality and both will say that God maketh not light of the smallest matters in religion nor no more must we And in this general position there is some truth But if nothing could be said for both their errours they would then be no deceits nor be capable of doing any mischief Some things that you contend about God hath left wholly undetermined and indifferent And some things in which your brother erreth his errour is so small a fault as not at all to hinder his acceptance with God nor with any man that judgeth as God doth Had you ever understood Rom. 14 15. you would have understood all this It would make a knowing Christian weep between indignation and compassion to see in these times what censures and worse are used on both sides about the wording of our prayers to God! How vile and unsufferable some account them that will pray in any words which are not written down for them And how unlawful others account it to pray in their imposed forms some because they are forms and some because they are such forms and some because that Papists have used them and some because they are imposed when God hath given them no command but to pray in faith and fervency according to the state of themselves and others and in such order as is agreeable to the matter and in such method as he hath given them a Rule and Pattern of But of all quarrels about forms and words he hath never made any of their particular determinations no more than whether I shall preach by the help of Notes or study the words or speak those which another studied for me It is a wonder how they that believe the Scriptures came first to make themselves believe that God maketh such a matter as they do of their several words and forms of prayer That he loveth only extemporary prayer as some think and hateth all prescribed forms Or that he loveth only prescribed Forms as others think and hateth all extemporary prayers by habit Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and also prayers by habit were used And yet Christ never interposed in the Controversie so as to condemn the one or the other He condemneth the Pharisees for making long prayers to cover their devouring widdows houses and for their praying to be seen of men But whether their prayers were a Liturgy and set forme or whether they were extemporary he taketh no notice as telling us that he condemned neither And it s like the Pharisees long Liturgy was in many things worse than ours though the Psalms were a great part of it And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Nay as far as I can find the Pharisees and other Jews were not in this so blind and quarrelsome as we nor never made a controversie of it nor ever presumed to condemn either Liturgies or Prayers by habit I shall now pass by their errour who are utterly against publike prayers from a habit as having spoken of it at large elsewhere when I had opportunity I shall now only answer the contrary extreme Obj. Where hath God given any men power to prescribe and impose forms for others or commanded others to obey them Answ. First where ever he hath given any power to teach their inferiours to pray who cannot do it in a better way He hath given Parents this power where he hath bid them Bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Is it not by the Law of nature the Parents duty to teach their children to pray And is not the learning of the words first profitable to their learning of the sense May they not teach their Children the Lords Prayer or a Psalm though it be a Form And why not then other words which are agreeable to their State And he that taught his own Disciples a Form and Rule of Prayer and telleth us that so Iohn taught his Disciples and saith to his Apostles As my Father sent me so send I you by making them Teachers to his Church did allow them to teach either by forms or without as the cause required All the Scripture is now to Preachers a form of Teaching And when we read a Chapter we read a prescribed form of Doctrine And it haâ—h many forms of prayer and praise and forms of Baptizing administring the Lords Supper If you say that the Apostles had an infallible spirit I answer True And that proveth that that their Doctrine was more infallible than other mens but not that they only and not other men may teach by the way of forms All the Books of Sermons now written are
Physician and with your Estates as well as a studyed Lawyer And why do no Sea-men trust any other to govern the ship as well as an experienced Pilot Do you not see that all men ordinarily are best at that which by long study they have made their profession I know those that I have now to do with will say that Divinity is not learnt by labour and mens teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by the teaching of the spirit of God and therefore the youngest may have as much of it as the eldest Answ. There is some truth and some falshood and much confusion in this objection It is true that the saving knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God But it is false that labour and humane teaching are not the means which must be used by them who will have the teaching of the spirit And the objection confoundeth 1. The spirits teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the spirits teaching us the meaning of the Scripture 2 And it confoundeth the common knowledge of Divinity with the saving knowledge of it No man commeth to a common knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the spirits teaching us by the Scripture For that was the first part of the spirits teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a teaching Word to the Church by which we might all be taught of God through all generations But many men have excellent common knowledge by this word and by the common help of the spirit without that special help which begetteth saving knowledge Many prophesied and workt miracles in Christs name who had no saving knowledge of him Mat. 7. 22 23. And Paul rejoyced that Christ was preached even by them that did it of strife and envy to add affliction to his bonds Phil. 1. 15 16 17 18. saving knowledge must have a special help of grace And they which had but Solomons knowledge may by the spirit have saving knowledge in a little time by bringing it to the heart and making it clear and lively and effectual But that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the man that hath it And all knowledge requireth time and labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctifyed to us in a little time 1. Consider I pray you why else it is that God hath so multiplied commands to dig for it as for Silver and search for it as a hidden treasure to cry for Knowledge and lift up our voice for understanding to wait at the posts of wisdoms doors to search the Scriptures and meditate in them day and night Is not this such study and labour as men use to get understanding in other kind of professions Are not these the plain commands of God and are they not their deceivers who contradict them 2. Is it not a blaspheming of Gods spirit to make it the Patron of mens sloth and idleness under pretense of magnifying grace When so many Texts command us diligence and slothfulness is so great a sin And none are so forward to preach as these same men that cry down mens teaching 3. Why hath God setled a Teaching Office in his Church and commandeth all to attend and hear and learn if we are taught by the Spirit without mans help Why were the Apostles sent out into all the world And why are they commanded to teach all Nations and to teach the Church all that Christ commanded them and why doth he promise to be with them to the end of the world but that this is the way of the Spirits teaching to teach those first who are our outward teachers and then to help us to understand them And those are taught of God who are taught by those who are sent of God to be their teachers and have the inward concurrence of his grace 4. Advise with the experience of all the world who was the man that ever you knew able to expound one Chapter in the Bible by the inward teaching of the Spirit alone without any labour of his own or help from others by voice or writing Where dwelleth that man who by meer inspiration can turn one Chapter out of Hebrew or Greek into the vulgar tongue The first part of our preaching or publishing the Scriptures is by Translating them into a language which is understood When Ezra in his Pulpit of wood did read the Law and give the sense the meaning is that he read it in the ancient Hebrew tongue in which it was written and turned it into the language which the Jews then used who were grown much strangers to their ancient speech Where is the man that can solidly unfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never read or heard of or can teach that truth and defend that Religion which he was never taught by man He is a stranger in the world who seeth not that as in Law and Physick and other professions though some are ignorant even when they are old yet commonly all men are wisest and ablest in their own profession and those know most who having natural capacities have had best help and longest time and hardest studies the Spirit assisting them by his common help to make it Knowledge and by his special grace to make it a sanctifying knowledge Therefoâ—e remember to give due respect to them that have been longer in Christ than you and to them that have longer studyed the Scriptures and to them that have had greater helps and experience And do not too easily imagine that those who are below them in all these advantages are yet above them in sound understanding Though such a wonder may sometime come to pass DIRECT II. Observe well the secret and subtil workings of spiritual pride and how deep-rooted and dangerous a sin it is and what special temptations to this odious sin the younger and emptyâ—headed Christians have that the resistance of them may be your daily care PRide is the self-idolizing sin the great rebel against God the chief part of the Devils image that one sin which breaketh every commandment the Heart of the old man the root and Parent and summary of all other sin the Antichristian vice which is most directly contrary to the life of Christ the principal object of Gods hatred and disdain and the mark of those whom he delighteth to tread down and the certain Prognostick of dejection and abasement either by humbling repentance or damnation It is called Spiritual Pride from the Object when men are proud of spiritual excellencies real or supposed And this is so much worse than Pride of Beauty apparel riches high places or high birth as the abuse of great and excellent things is worse than the abuse of vanities and triâ—les and as things spiritual are in themselves more contrary to the nature of pride and therefore the sin hath the greater enormity The common exercise of this Religious or spiritual Pride is first about our Knowledge and secondly
about our Godliness or Goodness 1 Pride of our understandings worketh thus First a man that was formerly in darkness is much affected with the new-come light and perceiveth that he knoweth much more than he did before And then he groweth to a carnal and corrupt estimation of it valuing it more as Nature is pleased with it than as it is sanctified by it Delighting in knowledge for it self more than for the purity Love and heavenliness which it should effect Then he looketh about him on the ignorant sort of people who know not what he knoweth and seeth how far they are below him And he thinketh with himself what a difference hath God made between Me and Them And because Thankfulness is a duty he observeth not how Pride doth twist it self with it and creep in under the protection of its name And how Thankfulness and Pride have the same expressions and both of them say I thank thee O Father that thou hâ—st hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes I thank thee O God that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican Luk. 18. 11. And then he is so taken up with the things which he knoweth that he perceiveth not what knowledge yet he wanteth And the deep affection which his knowledge worketh in him or the tickling pleasure which he hath in knowing joyned with this ignorance of his ignorance in other things doth make him over-confident of all his apprehensions as if every thing which he imagineth were an absolute certainty And so he wanteth that humble suspicion of his own understanding which a true acquaintance with his ignorance would have caused in him And thus he groweth to over-value all his own conceivings and to under-value all the opinions and reasonings of others which are contrary to his own And thence he proceeds to corrupt his Religion with such mis-apprehensions and his rash unsuspected understanding entertains one errour first and then that lets in many more till he have espoused a self-chosen frame of doctrine instead of the sacred truths of God and method of the Gospel And from hence he proceedeth to choose his Religious exercises also according to these mis-apprehensions These make him Duties which are no Duties and sins which are no sins And thus he calleth evil good and good evil and putteth darkness for light and light for darkness bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter And having made him a Religion of his own he confidently thinketh that it is of God And next he valueth all men that he hath to do with according as they are nearer or farther off from this which he accounteth the way of God He chooseth his Church or party whom he will joyn with by the test of this Religion which his pride hath chosen He zealously declaimeth against the opposers of his way as against the adversaries of truth and Godliness and consequently of God himself He prayeth up his opinions and preacheth them up and contendeth for them and prayeth and preacheth and dispâ—teth down all that â—s against them He laboureth to strengthen the party that is for them and to weaken that which is against them And thus he divideth the kingdom and family of Christ He destroyeth first the Love of his brother and neighbour in himself and then laboureth to destroy it in all others by speaking against those that are not of his way with contempt and obloquy to represent them as an â—â—lovely sort of men And if the interest of his cause and party do require it perhaps he will next destroy their persons And yet all this is done in zeal of God and as an acceptable service to him And they think all are Neâ—ters and Lukewarm who prosecute not the Schism as fervently as they and fight not against Love with as much vehemency Yea and in all this they are still conâ—ident that they Lâ—ve the Brethren with a special Love and make it the mark that they are Christs disciples and that they are passed from deâ—th to life because they love the party and persons who are of their own opinion and way And thus PRIDE insensibly while they perceive it not at all doth choke their Opinions their Religions their Parties and make their Duties and their sins and rule their judgments affections and their actions which is all but the same thing which the Scripture in one word calleth HERESY And all that I have said you may find said in other words in the third Chapter of Iames. And there are two things which greatly promote this sin The one is a conceit that all their apprehensions are the Spirits dictatâ—s or the effect of its illumination And the works and teachings of the spirit are not to be contradicted or suspected but to be honoured Therefore they think that it is a resisting of the spirit to resist their judgment And they are perswaded that their apprehensions are caused by the spirit partly because they had no such thing whilest they lived in wickedness but it came in either with their change or shortly after And therefore they think that the same light which shewed them their sinful state doth shew them also all these principles And partly because they find themselves as deeply â—ffected with these misapprehensions as with other which are sound and right therefore they are confident that they come from the same spirit And specially when these thoughts come in upon the reading of the Scripture or in meditation or after earnest prayer to God to teach them by his spirit and lead them into the truth and not to suffer them to err and when they find that they have good ends and meanings and a desire to know the truth all thâ—s perswadeth them that it is the spirit from whom their thoughts proceed when yet it may be no such thing And another much greater and commoner cause of this self-conceitedness is this All mens understandings are naturally imperfect Our knowledge about Natural things is small and dark much more about things supernatural The wisest must say We know but in part And the variety of mens degrees of knowledge joyned with the difference of their educations and advantages and fore-going thoughts doth make as great a diversity of understandings as of complexions And yet it is very hard to any man to have a sufficient diffidence and suspicion of his mistaking mind For what a man knoweth he knoweth that he knoweth But no man that erreth doth know that he erreth For that is a contradiction If I knew that I erred in judgment I must know that the thing is otherwise than I judged it to be which is impossible to the same understanding at the same time For then judging were no judging as being contrary to knowledge When I see such a difficulty about a point as to pass no judgment at all but remain in meer suspence then I can easily perceive that I am ignorant of it But
when I pass any judgment I cannot perceive that my judgment is false except it be in the cure of it and by the same light which changeth it when I err I can never know that I err but in sensu diviso when I cease my error when I know that I erred I so err no longer And because every thing which appeareth to us doth appear in some kind of light or other and appeareth in some form and as clothed with some qualities the understanding therefore presently hath some thought or other of it If we take any notice of it we shall have some kind of conception and opinion of it And few things in the world do appear to us in such equal diverse shapes as to leave the understanding wholly dubious whether it be this or that Though of that which hath no appearance at all I am wholly ignorant and have no conception And when one part of a thing is seen and many other parts of it are unseen we are all apt to conceive of the whole according to the part which we see and not allow a just suspension or suspicion for all the parts which are unseen That which I see affecteth me as a thing seen But that which I see not is nothing to me and therefore affecteth me not at all That part which I know I know that it is so far what it is It is in my mind memory But that part which I know not I know not that it is or know not what it is so that seeing one part of things and not seeing another yea perhaps many others doth not only cause our error in judging of them but also maketh it very hard to question or distrust our judgments For we must not be Scepticks and doubt of all things Nor must we deny belief to so much as is revealed to us And therefore however at the present we apprehend things just such we are usually confident that they are And in this difficulty all error and the lamentable consequences of it do come in But what shall a man do in so hard a streight Why this every humble man must do He must tread safely and proceed warily and try the spirits and try the doctrines offered him throughly and this by all the means which God hath appointed him for that use He must not strive against the light but he must take heed of taking darkness for light or hearkening to the deceiver when he transformeth himself into an angel of light which is not unusual what cometh with evidence of truth must be received as truth and held fast and not again let go however sometimes it may have a second and third tryal And when you see any truth remember that it is still with a defective sight and that you see but in part And therefore allow a freedome in your understandings to receive the rest You are certain that you see not all that is to be seen of any Doctrine or Science any more than of any creature And you are uncertain what influence the unknown parts would have upon that part which you know or what alteration it would make upon your apprehension if you saw them altogether in their connexion Therefore be sure that in your most confident apprehensions you never forget that there is still much more unknown to you than you yet know And this will preserve a humility and modesty in your understandings and a capacity and fitness to receive more knowledge When the forgetting of this will make you proud and arrogant and presumptuous and like the fool that rageth and is confident even in your ignorance and shame and will shut up your minds against that knowledg which you want But especially if you know that your advantages for knowledge have been less than other mens that you are young or that it is but a few years since you entred upon the study of the Scriptures or that you have not any stronger natural parts than other men or that you have not had that measure of Learning which might further your knowledge of the holy Scriptures but that others that differ from you have had much more of all these helps and means than you common reason here commandeth you to be modest and not over-confident in your own opinion nor too much to slight the judgements of such others Especially if those that differ from you be not only more Learned but as truly conscionable as you and as like to be unfeigned lovers of truth and have prayed more and meditated more and have had more religious experiences than your selves And yet more if they are the greater number of the godly that differ from you and you are singular in your conceits in this case rash confidence in your own opinions is too palpable a sign of a religious pride Obj. But the Learnedst men are not always the wisest in the matters of Religion Answ. Many men are Learned in the Languages and Sciences who are not Learned in the Scriptures because they applyed not their studâ—es that way And many men are Learned in the Scriptures and the Sacred tongues who yet live in sin though they are able to teach the truth for others But those that well understand the Scriptures without Learning the Languages which they are written in and the Customs of those times and Countreys or without much reading and long study both of the Scriptures themselves and the writings of them that better understand them are so few so very few if any at all that if you will pretend to be one of them you had need of some miracle or something like a miracle to make your selves or others be-believe that you are not deceived See what I have said of this at large in my Unreasonableness of Infidelity Obj. The greater number are not always in the right therefore why should my singularity discourage me Answ. The greater number through the world are not in the right about Christiany for they are not Christians And the greater number of vulgar Christians be not in the right perhaps in many points of Learning and Scholastick controversies because they are not Learned in such controversies But all Godly men and Christians are in the right in all points essential to Godliness and Christianity And therefore they are in the certain way of life And if in any integral or accidental point you think that you are wiser than the greater part of men as Learned and as Godly as your self you must give very good proof of it to your self and others before it is to be believed I know that in all ages God giveth some few men more excellent natural parts than others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious studies than others and he blesseth some mens studies more than others and therefore there are still some few who know more than the rest of the Countrey or of mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them But
abundance more some taking him for the Messiah and some by his breathing on them thinking that they received the Holy Ghost When David George in Holland and Iohn of Leyden in Munster and Behmen Stiefelius and so many more pretended Prophets in Germany could deceive so many persons as they did When the pretended revelations of the Ranters first and the Quakers after could so marvellously transport many thousand professours of religion in this land I think we have fair warning to take the counsel of St. Iohn Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God It is a pitiful instance of the good old learned Commenius who so easily believed the prophesies of Daubritius and the rest which he hath published Yea when he saw the prophesies fail yet when he adjured the prophet to speak truth and got him to swear as before the Lord that it was truth this seemed enough to confirm his belief of him whereas if he had been as well acquainted with the nature of Melancholy and Historical passions as many others are he would have known that as strange things as that he recordeth of the man or women may be done without any Divine inspirations and that it is no wonder if that person swear that his words are true who is first deceived himself before he deceive others For a crackt brain'd person to believe his delusions to be real verities is little wonder I have many a time my self conversed with persons of great honesty and piety though of no great judgment who have some of them affirmed that they had angelical revelations and some of them thought that the Spirit of God did bring this Scripture or that Scripture to their mind in answer to their prayers and were so very confident that what they affirmed was the certain truth or voice of God that I have been stricken with a reverence to their professions and with a fear lest I should resist God in resisting them But resolving to take none on earth for the master of my faith but to try the Spirits whether they be of God by going to the Law and Testimony I was constrained to turn my reverence into pity For I found that their seeming revelations were some of them Scripture-doctrine and some of them contrary to the Scripture As for that which is already in the Scripture what need I further revelation for it Is it not there sufficiently revealed Can their words add any authority to the Word of God And have I not Gods own Ministers and means to help me to the knowledge of his word And as for that which is contrary to Scripture I am sure that it is contrary to the will of God And if an Angel from Heaven should preach another Gospel to me I must hold him accursed Gal. 1. 7 8. so that if these persons should have the appearance voice of an Angel speaking to them I would despise it as well as the words of a mortal man if they be against the recorded word of God But by what I have seen and heard I know that it is a great temptation to some weak Christians to hear one that is much in prayer say Take heed what you do Have no Communion with this sort of men nor in this or that way of worship nor in this or that opinion for I am sure it is against the mind of God I once thought as you do but God hath better made known his mind unto me But saving the due respect to the honesty of such persons ask them How shall I know that you are in the right If they say I will not reason the case with you but I know it to be the mind of God Tell them that God hath made you reasonable creatures and will accept no unreasonable service of you and you have but one Master of your Faith even Christ Therefore if they believe that themselves which they can give you no reason to believe they must be content to keep their belief to themselves and not for shame perswade any other to it without proof If they say that God hath revealed it to them Tell them that he hath not revealed it to you and therefore that 's nothing to you till they prove their divine revelation If God reveal it to them but for themselves they must keep it to themselves If he reveal to them for others he will enable them to make some proof of their revelations that others may be sure that they sin not in believing them If they say that the Scripture is their ground Tell them that the Scripture is already revealed to all And if indeed what they speak be there you are ready to believe it But if they pervert the Sâ—â—pture by false interpretation or abuse it and mâ—â—apply it none of this is the work of the Spirit of God If they say that the spirit hath told them the meaning of the Scripture say as before that is not told for you which is not proved to you The Scripture is written in such words as men use of purpose that they might understand it and is to be understood by all men that hear it though they have no revelation God hath set Pastors in his Church to teach it If therefore revelations be still necessary to the understanding of the Scripture revelations then the Scriptures seem to be in vain and these last revelations must again have new revelations to the right understanding of them also The truth is it is very ordinary with poor fanciful women and melancholy persons to take all their deep apprehensions for revelations And if a text of Scripture come into their minds they say This text was brought to my mind and that text was set upon my spirit As if nothing could bring a text to their thoughts but some extraordinary motion of God And as if this bringing it to their mind would warrant their false exposition of it To conclude Decry not the necessity of the ordinary sanctifying work of the spirit to bless the Scripture to your true illumination and sanctification And if any pretend to any other revelations or inspirations or expositions of the Scripture which they cannot prove to youâ— despise them not but modestly leave them to themselves But take heed that the reverence of any ones holiness tempt you not to depart from the certain sufficienâ— word of God and draw you not into any 〈◊〉 Heresie or Separation or Opinion contrary to Gods standing Law DIRECT XXIX Take heed lest the trouble of your own disquieted doubting minds do become a snare to draw you to some uncouth way of cure and so make the fancy of some new Opinion Sect or Practise to seem your Remedy and give you ease and thereby perswade you that it is the certain truth THis is the pitiful Case of the ignorant and ungrounded and troubled sort of religious persons that they are looking every way for ease and comfort And having not wisdom enough to
so many prescribed words or forms of teaching And if we may use forms of Teaching as well as the Apostles why not also forms of praying If you say that the Apostles prescribed the Church no Liturgy I answer That only proveth that no one is universally necessary nor to be universally imposed but not that therefore no use of forms of prayer are lawful May we not now use the Lords Prayer or pray in some other Scripture form Obj. But the Apostles compelled none to use them Answ. Christ and his Apostles assumed not the civil Sword and therefore so compelled men to nothing But yet their authority bound the conscience when Christ said when ye pray say Our Father c. he bound them in duty to do as he bid them though he forced them not But Secondly tell me if you can where God forbiddeth you to use good and lawful words in prayer meerly because the Magistrate or Pastor bids you use them Is this the meaning of all the Precepts of honouring and obeying your Superiors Do nothing which they bid you do though otherwise lawful O strange exposition of the Fifth Commandment If you command your Child to learn a Catechism or Form of Prayer before his meat or for other times will you teach him to say Father or Mother it had been lawful for me to use this Form if neither you nor any body had bid me But because you bid me now it is unlawful O whither will not partiality lead men Obj. But though it be lawful to impose forms on children yet not upon aged Christians Answ. Aged persons have too many of them as much need of such forms as children Age maketh not the difference We are fain to teach many aged persons forms of Catechism as well as children Why not therefore forms of prayer Obj. But it is not lawful to impose forms publikely on whole Congregations of Believers Answ. All sects in the world do it I never heard any Separatist or Anabaptist or any other publike Minister but he imposed a form of prayer upon all the Congregation He is void of common sense that thinketh that his extemporary prayer is not as truly a form to all the people as if it had been written in a book The order and words are not of your own invention but invented by another to your hand and imposed upon you to use For I hope you come together to pray and not to hear a prayer only But the difference is First that one imposeth every day a new form on you and the other imposeth every day the same Secondly And that one telleth you not what words you shall pray in before you hear them and the other writeth them down for you to know before hand For my part I wonder why written or unwritten long-premeditated or suddenly expressed prayers should be taken for unlawful But however do not think the difference to lie where it doth not For doubtless to the people they are both formes and both imposed though not imposed by the same persons and authority Obj. But at least you have no proof for imposing forms â—n the Ministers themselves Ans. First I know no man that questioneth but some form of prayer and praise were imposed by God himself on the Iewish Ministers And one was taught by Christ to his Apostles And a form of Profession of faith and of Baptism and the Lords supper is imposed on all the Ministers of the Church And Ioel 2. 17. a form of prayer is taught the Priests Secondly But we are not now pleading for the needless imposing of any forms nor the causless restraint of extemporarary prayers I have fully born my testimony against that in due season But many things are lawfully and necessarily obeyed which are not lawfully commanded as I shall shew you more anon I could heartily wish that we could say that all Ministers of any party were such as were wholly above the need of forms Or at least such whose own composures were better for for the Church than any that could be offered them by others If it were not a contradiction But all that I now expect from the Objectors is that they tell me or themselves what proof they have that it is a sin for a Minister only to use an imposed form when all the Congregation else may use it Answer this well before you go And I pray let all the people note here that it is not nor cannot be denied but that a form even a new one every day may be lawfully be imposed upon all them and that the question is only of the Ministers use of imposed forms Obj. But our Ministers do not impose their prayers by forcâ— Answ. Do you think that there is no imposition but by force Your Pastor is your guide in the worship of God and God hath imposed it on you to to follow him and joyn with him in lawful prayer And what the words shall be and what the matter and order chosen for that time time the Speaker chooseth for you And so he bindeth you by his Ministerial authority which is a true and lawful imposing though he compel you not by the sword or force Obj. But Christ hath given gifts to all his Ministers and commanded them to use them And they use them not when they use imposed formes Therefore we must not obey men against Christ. Answ. No doubt but all that are lawful Ministers have such gifts as are necessary to the essential works of their office But the degrees of their gifts have very great variety as Paul fully sheweth in 1 Cor. 12. and oft elsewhere And the necessary gift for hearty acceptable prayer is true Desire excited by the spirit of supplication which sometime venteth it self but by sighes and groans Rom. 8. 16 26. But the Ministerial gift of prayer is Knowledge and Utterance by which a Minister may be able to express the desires and wants of the people unto God which includeth memory in some degree Even as Knowledge and Utterance are his Gift of preaching And some have more Knowledge and worser Vtterance And some have better Vtterance and less Knowledge And some through want of memory are defective in both The lowest rank of lawful Ministers may be so defective in their own gifts both of Knowledge Memory and Utterance as to have need of the help of the gifts of others who much excel them As a Minister who hath tollerable Gifts for preaâ—hing may yet need the writings of other men before hand and may bring both their Matter and Method into the Pulpit yea and oft times their words so that though he have Gifts yet being weak he may use the gifâ—s of others I have been counselled since I was silenced to compose Sermons my self and give them in writing to some weak Minister that hath an excellent Voice and utterance and to let him preach them And really if I had not known that such have good books enough at hand for such a use
in Christendome and the blood of the many hundred thousands that have for conscience sake been shed and the enduring of the outcries of the imprisoned and banished and their prayers to heaven for deliverance from mens hands and the leaving of such a name on record to posterity as is usually left in History on the authors of such sufferings besides the present regret of mind in the calamities of others and the sad divisions and destruction of Charity which cometh hereupon I say whether it be worth the suffering of all this and O how small a part is this and all to keep our Churches from the primitive simplicity and from the same way and Communion which Peter and Paul and the Churches of their times established and practised Shall we speak so highly of Christ and his Apostles and the sacred Scriptures and yet think all this blood and misery division and distraction worthy to be endured rather than our Union and Communion should be held on the terms which they did appoint and practise or rather than such terms should be tolerated among us I know what is said against all this But this is no place to answer all that is said by such as cannot see how to answer themselves in so clear a case DIRECT XII Remember that the Pastoral Government is a Work of LIGHT and LOVE and what cannot be done by these is not at all to be done by you And therefore you must make it your great study and employment first to Know more than the people and to Love them more than they Love you or one another and then to convince them by unresistable evidence of truth and to cause the warmth of your Love to be felt by them in every word and act of your Ministration As the Miâ—k is waâ—m by the natural heat of the mother and so is fitted for the nourishment of the child AS the Gospel is the revelation of the Love of God and it is a message of Love which we have to bring and a work of Love which we cooperate to effect so it is a spirit of Love which must be our principle and it is an office and work of Love which we are called to and the manner must be answerable to the work Faith is the Head and Love is the Heart of the new Creature And as there is no Light in our office and work if there be no Faith and evidence of Truth so there is no Life in it if there be no Love God himself in the great work of our Redemption Christ in his Incarnation life and suffering hath taught the world that the manifestation of Love is the way to win Love and to cure enmity And he is not worthy the name of a Minister of Christ who hath not learned this lesson and doth not imitate his Lord in this That as our office participateth subordinately of his office both Ruling Teaching Priestly so we may participate of that Spirit of Love which was his Principle and must be ours If it be not a work of Love which we do it is not the work of a Minister of Christ and Preacher of the Gospel Can you well Preach so great Love of Christ to men without Love if you shew not Love to them you can never expect to win their Love to your selves And when you overmuch desire to be loved your selves as which of you doth not you pretend that it is to make your endeavours more successful when you perswade them to the love of Christ. And doubtless a just Love to the person of the Preacher is a good advantage to this success And in good sadness can you believe that any thing is so likely to win Love as Love or did experience ever teach you that reproach or contempt or hurting men was the effectual way to make them Love you This way hath been long tried by the Mountebanks in Italy Spain and many other Countries but alas with what success Indeed solitudinem faciunt paâ—â—m vocant as Tertullian saith When they have killed those that they had first oppressed they affrighted the rest to say they loved them and really won the Love of their surviving blood-thirsty enemies but that was all If the new knack of transfusion of blood cannot do this feat by letting in the blood of a Spaniel who loveth him that beateth him when you let out their own phlebotomy will never do it Account then that Sermon that converse that reproof that discipline in which Love is not apparently predominant to be but a lifeless useless thing as to the winning of a sinners heart to Christ. Though I deny not but when the case of the sinner appeareth desperate the severity of Discipline in casting him off may express more of another affection as to him But that is because in so doing you must shew greater Love to the Church which must be saved from the infection But perhaps you 'l say They despise me and injure me and follow others and admire them who deserve not so well of them as I do Answ. First we are most of us too partial to be competent Judges of our own deserts Selfishness too often maketh us think better of our selves our preaching and our lives than there is cause And it too often filleth men with envy against those whose greater worth and better labours cause them to be preferred by the hearers And envy usually breeds detraction I know that many giddy persons heap up Teachers to them selves and follow seducers coutemn the faithfullest servants of the Lord. But I know withall that there is usually a convincing power in the preaching of able experienced Ministers which is not to be found in the cold formal discourses of an hypocrite And that there is a suitable principle in true spiritual experienced Christians which causeth them to relish this spiritual experimental preaching much more than the more-adorned carkasâ—es of formality And seriousness is still acceptable to serious Christians Yea even to common natural men unless the malicious possess them by slanders with prejudice against it Now if this should be the cause that others are preferred before you O how heynous were your sin As if it were not enough for you to neglect your duty and to do the work of God deceitfully and injure the souls of men in a cause of such importance but you must also impenitently justifie such a crime and also maligne those that have more of the grace and gifts of God than you and that do more to help to save mens souls Secondly But suppose that your deserts be as great as you conceive and their love to you as little I would further ask you First is it for their own sake who thus hinder their own edification by it that you are troubled at them or is it for your selves because you have not the respect which is your due If it be the later I need not tell you what it is for Ministers of Christ