must we not separate from them then as Idolaters Yea and every man from himself that is He must give over praying because its all Idolatry But perhaps they will say This sin is but in the manner and not in the matter Answ. Very good It seems then that sin in the manner of worship is not Idolatry And how prove you that the faults of the Liturgy are not as far from the Matter of the worship as your own are Will you find some words which you can call false in the matter Suppose it were so When an Antinomian an Anabaptist a Separatist or any one that erreth doth drop some of his errours in his prayers as I think none will deny that they use to do must we needs believe that his prayer is Idolatry therefore as being false worship And is it unlawful to joyn with such Then we shall have more separation than you yet plead for or practise your selves No two men in the world must joyn together if all sinful worship or worship false sometime in the very matter doth necessitate a separation At least where no one knoweth before hand what another will say with his tongue when I know that every man hath some false opinion in his mind But where did these men learn to call their brethrens worship false any more than their own upon the account that God hath not commanded the manner of it when he hath neither commanded us to use a form nor to forbear it but by general precepts of doing all to edification If one man preach in one method and another in another One by written Notes to help his memory and another without one by his own gifts only and another by the help of others which of these is the false prophet the false worshipper or Idolater Hath God said you shall use Notes in preaching No more hath he said you shall preach without Notes yet hath he commanded both to severall persons where edification variously requireth itâ— Is he an Idolater that useth Meeters Tunes Versions Translations Directories Pâ—lpits Cups Table Cloaths Fonts Basins c. which God commandeth not O Lord pity thy poor Church whose Pastors themselves are so peevish in their ignorance and tempt other men by their follies to â—â—stifie all their severities against them and others But what Text of Scripture is it that ever told these men that all false worship is Idolatry what text do they name but such as if they did it on purpose to shew their boldness in adding to Gods Word The second Commandment is the chief which they insist on But what ever Expositions they may forge there is no such word nor sense in the Commandment We all hold that as the gross direct Idolatry is the worshipping of a false God against the first Commandment so to make any such false representation of the true God by words or deeds as maketh him like an Idol and contradicteth his nature and so to worship him this is also a secondary kind of Idolatry Because God is none such as they represent him and therefore it is not God indeed but an Idol which they worship And because God is not like to any thing corporeal in heaven or earth therefore he that maketh an image of any thing in Heaven or earth as like to God or to represent him he maketh an idol of God by blasphemy To what will you liken me that â— should be like unto it saith the Holy one This is the idolatry forbidden in the Second Commandment It is not all false worship but one sort of false worship which is idolatry what else that Commandment forbiddeth is neither called Idolatry nor can so be proved It is an odious sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his brethrens prayers to God because they have something in them to be amended while perhaps his own prayers have so much false doctrine in them or false fire of carnal passions and uncharitableness as maketh it a much harder question whether it be lawful to joyn with such as he is while he abhorreth so much to joyn with others All that know me know that it is not my own case and interest that I fit this reprehension to It is twenty times harder to me to remember a Form of words than to express what is in my mind without them But we must not fit our opinions of all our brethrens prayers to our own temperament DIRECT XXXIV Think not that all is unlawful to be obeyed which is unlawfully commanded MAny a Ruler sinneth in his Commands when it is no sin but a duty of the inferior to obey them He that hath but a bad end or bad circumstances may sin in commanding As if a Magistrate command Religious Duties in meer Policy for his own Advantage or if he enforce a lawful Command with unlawful Penalties And yet it will be the Subjects Duty to obey Yea as to the matter it self it may be unlawful for a Ruler to command a thing that will do no good because it is a vain Command and maketh men spend that time in vain and yet it may be the Subjects Duty to do it If the Magistrate choose an inconvenient place for publike worship or an unfit hour or if the Pastor choose a less fit translation meeter or tune or other circumstances of worship it may be their sin to do so and yet the peoples duty to obey them If a Father bid his Child but carry a straw from one place to another it is his fault so to imploy his time in vain but the Child is not faulty in obeying Indeed if the thing commanded be such as is simply evil and forbidden us by God in all cases whatsoever than no ones commands can make it lawful But if it be a thing that is only inconvenient or unlawful by some lesser accident then the command of authority may preponderate as a more weighty accident If it be lawful to give a Thief my purse to save my life which is not lawful for him to demand or take Then sure it is lawful to obey a King a Parent a Master oâ— a Pastor in things not evil in themselves though they unlawfully command them I say not that we must do so in all things which are evil but by accident For some accidents may make it so great an evil as no mans command can preponderate and make it lawful But in some cases it is so though not in all Therefore remember that you do not prove it sinful in you to do such things by proving it a sin in the imposer unless you have some better reason and can shew a Law of God forbidding you DIRECT XXXV Think not that you are guilty of all the Faults of other mens worship with whom you joyn no not of the Ministers or Congregations Nor that you are bound to separate from them in worship because of all the faults in their performance THis
matter is honest good I would not prefer such a man in a Congregation before an abler man who will speak more composedly agreeable to the matter But yet I would not be so peevish as utterly to refuse to joyn with such a one But as God doth not reject his prayers notwithstanding all his weakness no more would I. And I had rather have such prayers than none at all O that men would discern what is the true worth of prayer and how little God is taken with the Oratory of them in comparison of the faith and love and desire which is the soul of prayer And O that men would lay no greater stress on their peculiar modes and words than God doth and condemn no mens prayers further than they are condemned by God nor separate from any further then God rejecteth them or commandeth our separation I cannot forbear telling you the aggravation of this kind of sin It seemeth to me akind of blasphemy against God As if you would make the world believe that God is so much for your modâ— and words that he overlooketh all the desires of the Spirit and all his promises and all mens interest in Christ and forgetteth all his love to his people so that Christ shal not intercede for them or shal not prevail unless they pray to God in the words and mode which you have fancied to be best whether with a Book or without in these words or in those Me thinks you are renewing the old controversie whether in this Mount or at Ierusalem men ought to worship and knew not that the time is come that God will neither accept men for worshipping at this Mount or at Ierusalem here or there with a book or without book but the true worshippers whom he chooseth do worship him as a Spirit in Spirit and in truth as well with Forms as without them And yet some are more wicked than barely to condemn their brethrens prayers because they be not cloathed just as their own They will also break jests and scorns at them and take this for the ingenuity of their piety Like men of several Countreys who thâ—nk the fashions of all Countryes save their own to be ridiculous and laugh at strangers as if they were cloathed in fools Coats So many do by the cloathing of other mens devotions Some scorn at extemporary prayers and some scorn at Forms and Liturgies And the Litany they call conjuring and the Responses they take for a formal jocular playing with holy things when in all these the humble heavenly Christian is lifting up his soul to God By this petulant carnal kind of zeal I remember our divisions were here raised at the first To deridâ— the Common prayer and deride them that used it was too common with some kind of religious people And they excused it by Elias his example As if Idolaters and the true worshippers of God that differ from us in a Form or Ceremony were all one I remember how some of the contrary mind were inflamed to indignation by such scorns when they were going into the Churches in London and heard some Separatists that lookt in at the Church door say The Devil choke thee art thou not out of thy pottage yet because the Common Prayer was not ended So little did men know what spirit they were of But wise and holy Mr. Hildersham Mr. Iohn â—all Mr. Bradshaw Mr. Iohn Paget and other learned Non-conformists of old did foresee and greatly fear this Spirit It is a dangerous thing to scorn and jest at any thing that is done about Gods worship though it should be it self unwarrantable while you scorn at one anothers worship of God you raise a bold unreverence and contempt of holy things in the heâ—rerâ— and perhaps before you are aware in your selves too And you will teach the Atheist to scorn you all unless 〈…〉 where the very object is to be derided as being no God you should be very suspicious of this way I am afraid of making a mock of the grossest erroneous worship of the true God It is fitter to confute it in a way that more expresseth our reverence to the Object God himself our respect to that pious affection which may be engag'd in it I have seldom seen the best tempered people inclined to this way of jesting at other mens manner of worship nor have I observed much good come by it But I have oft seen that it is the way by which young prâ—ud self-conceited persons do kindle a carnal dividing zeal and a contempt of their brethren and quench all holy sober zeal and love together DIRECT XXXIII When you are sure that other mens way of worship is sinful yet make it not any other or greater sin than indeed it is and speak not evil of that much in it which is Good And accuse not God to be a hater or rejecter of all mens service which is mixed with infirmities AS St. Iames saith 3. 2. In many things we â—ffend all but he that â—ffendeth not with his tongue is the perfect man So we may here say in the same sense In many particulars of our prayers and other worship we all offend God But he that bridleth not his tongue from the reproaching of his brothers different way of worship may prove the greatest Offendor of all It would move a charitable understanding hearer to grief and pity to read and hear one party call all prayer by habit no better than crudities whinings bold talking to God and nonsence and whatsoever bitter scorn can speak And to read and hear many on the other extreme to call the Liturgy no less than Idolatry I desire the Reader to peruse a judicious Treatise of Mr. Tombes in answer to one of this language As much as he and I have written against each others opinion about Infant Baptisme our concenting admonition to you should so much the rather be accepted in this And what pitiful arguments have they to prove this charge of Idolatry False worship of the true God is idolatry as well as worshipping a false God But such is the Liturgy Ergo This is all that these rash preachers must trouble the Church and seduce men into a hating factious zeal with But what mean these men by false worship Do they mean worship contrary to Gods word That is which is sinful And do they mean All such sinful worship or some only If they mean all such sinful worship than these words of theirs are Idolatry For they are part of their preaching which is part of Gods worship in their own sense And it is false doctrine and tendeth to mens perdition And so they and all false Teachers should be idolaters By this they would turn all sins in worship into one It is all Idolatry Is not every confused prayer sinful which hath unmeet expressions and disordered and hath wandering thoughts and dull affections Is there any of these Love-killers that dare say they pray without sin And
THE CURE OF Church-divisions OR Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being Dividers or Troublers of the Church With some Directions to the Pastors how to deal with such Christians By Richard Baxter Joh. 17. 21. 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 22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One 23. 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 thou hast loved me 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 among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men London Printed for Nevil Symmons at the three Crowns over against Holborn-Conduit 1670. The Authors I. Purpose II. Reasons and III. Prognosticks of this Book I. IT is none of the business of this Book to single out any one Party in the world to tell you by Application how far they are under the guilt of Schism I meddle with the Cause and leave each person to make application to himself It is SIMPLE CATHOLICK CHRISTIANITY which I plead for and the Love and Unity and Concord which are its Ligaments and Essential parts And it is a SECT as a SECT and a FACTION as a faction and not this or that Sect or Faction which I detect and blame Yet I doubt not but as in the same City there are the wise and the foolish the sound and the sick and in the same Army there are valiant men and Cowards so in the same Churches there are Christians of various degrees of Wisdom Integrity and strength And all men should earnestly desire to be of the wisest the Holiest and the most fruitful sort and not of the more erroneous impure or scandalous and unprofitable And if the sick will make themselves a Party and call the sound the Aâ—verse Party I will endeavour to be one of a Party in that sense and to obey God as exactly as I am able and to worship him as spiritually and holily as I can and to Love him with all my Mind and Heart and Strength and lament that I can reach no higher and do no more And if any will call this by the name of Heresie or Schism they shall see that I can avoid Heresie and Schism at as dear a rate as enduring the Name and Imputation of that which I avoid It is not the Name of a Schismatick that I am writing against but the Thing by whatever Name it is called It is UNITY LOVE and PEACE which I am pleading for And it is DIVISIONS HATRED and CONTENTION which I plead against And it is the Hypocrisie of men which I detect who betray Love Unity and Peace by a Iudas kiss and will nor or dare not openly renounce them and defie them but kill them with dissembling kindness who cry them up while they tread them down and follow peace with all men that are not of their party as the Dog followeth the Hare to tear it in pieces and destroy it Who fight for LOVE by making others seem odious and unlovely By evil surmisings proud under valuing the worth of others busie and groundless censuring of men whose case they know not aggravating frailties stigmatizing the persons the actions the worship and religious performances of dissenters with such odious terrible names and Characters as their pride and faction do suggest And all this to strengthen the interest of their side and party and to make themselves and their consenters to seem Wise and Good by making others seem foolish and bad Though they thereby proclaim themselves to be so much the worst by how much they are most void of Love They are all for Concord but it is only on their narrow factions terms They are for Peace but it is not of the whole street but of their house alone or not of the whole City but of their street alone or not of the whole Kingdom but of their City alone O what a blessed thing were peace if all would derive it from their Wills and terminate it in their interest and they might be the Center of Unity to the world that is that they might be Gods or Christs such excellent Architects are they that they can build Christs house by pulling it in pieces and such excellent Chirurgeons that they will heal Christs body by separating the members and can make as many Bodies as there are separated parts 2. Nor is it any or much of the business of this book to speak to those that I think are deepliest guilty of the Schisms of the Christian world For they are out of hearing and will not read or regard my writings It is the Roman Head and Center of Unity which hath done most to divide the Church And it is the contending of Rome and Constantinople for the Supremacy which hath made the greatest Schisms that the Christian world hath known And the Regiment of such Lords must be answerable to their Power and Greatness and the simple terms of Christian Unity left us by Christ and his Apostles must be turned into a Religion large as the Decrees of all the Councels and say half of them and the Popes Decretals also And that there may be no way out of this wilderness but the Confessors present will you must not in all these so much as distinguish fundamentals from the rest but so much material belief is necessary to Salvation as each mans opportunities and helps obliged him to receive that is The faith which is necessary to Salvation materially or objectively is as various as the number of persons in the world To one more is necessary to another less to some none at all of the Christian faith And you must suppose that the Priest is well acquainted with the internal capacity of every mans Soul and with all the instructions opportunities and suggestions of his whole life and can tell what measure of belief he hath and whether it be proportionable to his helps and so can tell him whether he be capable of Salvation though neither Pope nor Councel have given any Standard by which to judge And though no man can be assured of his own Salvation and though another man could not be saved by the faith that saveth him So much are we mistaken to think that it is the Pope that hath the Keys of Heaven when it is every Priest who is the onely judge of the measures of the persons faith These new made multiplyed Articles of Religion
as wasting fire proceedeth from the incendiaries The Texts recited DIRECTIONS FOR VVeak Christians How they may escape the troubling dividing and endangering of the Church by their Errours in Doctrine Worship and Church-Communion IF we had never been warned by the History of the Sacred Scripture or of the former Ages of the Church yet our experience in this present Age is enough to tell both us and our Posterity how great perturbations and calamites may come to the Church of Christ by the miscarriages of the more zealous Professors of Religion and how great a hinderance such may prove to the prosperity of the Gospel to the Love and Unity of Christians to the Reformation and holy order of the Congregations and to all those good ends which are desired by themselves How great a dishonour they may prove to the Christian name and what occasions of hardening the wicked in their contempt of Godliness to their everlasting ruine and the sufferings of Believers Therefore seeing the peace and welfare of the Church is much more valuable than the peace and welfare of an individual soul as I have Directed you how to escape your own disturbance and undoing so I think it as necessary to direct you how to escape being the Plagues and disturbers of the Church and the instruments of Satan in resisting the Gospel and destroying others And you should be the more willing to hear me in this also because by hurting others you hurt your selves and by wronging the Church of God you cross your own desires and ends if you are Christians indeed and by doing good to others and furthering the cause of Godliness and Christianity you do good to your selves and further your own Cosolation and Salvation DIRECT I. FIrst observe this General direction see that you forget not the great difference between Novices and experienced Christians between the babes and those at full age between the weak and the strong in grace Level them not in your estimation It is not for nothing that the Spirit of God in Scripture maketh so great a difference between them as you may read in Heb. 5. 11 12 13 14 6. 1 2. 1 Tim. 3. 6. 1 Iohn 2. 12 13 14. There are babes strong men and fathers among Christians There are some that are dull of hearing and have need of milk and are unskilful in the word of righteousness and must be taught the principles and there are others who can digest strong meat who by reason of Use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil Novices must not be made Pastors of the Church It is not for nothing that the Younger are so often commanded reverence and submission to the Elder and that the Pastors and Governors of the Church are usually called by the name of Elders because it was supposed that the elder sort were the most experienced and wise and therefore Pastors and Rulers were to be chosen out of them And why is it that children must so much honour their fathers and mothers and must be governed by them It is not meerly because generation giveth the Parents a propriety in their children For God would not have folly to be the governour of wisdom upon pretense of such propriety But it is also because that it must ordinarily be supposed that Infants are ignorant and Parents have understanding and are fit to be their Teachers as having had longer time and helps to learn and more experience to make their knowledge clear and firm If the young and unexperienced were ordinarily as wise as the aged or mature why are not children made governors of their Parents or at least commanded to instruct and teach them as ordinarily as Parents must do their children The Lord Jesus himself would be subject to his mother and reputed father in his Child-hood Luke 2. 51. Can there be a livelier conviction of the arrogancy of those novices who proudly sleight the judgments of their elders as presuming groundlesly that they are wiser than they Yea Christ would not enter upon his publick Ministry or Office till he was about thirty years of age Luke 3. 23. He is blind that perceiveth not in this example a most notorious Condemnation of the pride of those that run with the shell on their head into the Ministery or that hasten to be Teachers of others before they have had time or means to learn and that deride or vilisie the judgments of the aged who differ from their conceits before they understand the things in which they are so confident It was thought a good answer in Iohn 9. 21. He is of age ask him But they that are under age now think their words to be the wisest because they are the boldest and the fiercest The old were wont to bless the young and now the young deride the old It is the character of a truculent people Deut. 28. 50. that they regard not the person of the old that is They reverence not their age How many vehement commands are there in Solomons Proverbs to the younger sort to hearken to the counsel of their Parents The contrary was the ruine of Eli's sons and the shame of Samuels 1 Sam. 8. 1 5. Was Rehoboam unwise in forsaking the counsel of the aged and harkning to the young and rash And are those people wise that in the Mysteries of Salvation will prefer the vehement passions of a novice before the well-setled judgment of the experienced aged Ministers I know that the old are too oft ignorant and that wisdom doth not always increase with age But I know withall that Children are never fit to be the Teachers of the Church And that old men may be foolish but too young men are never wise enough for so high a work We are not now considering what may fall out rarely as a wonder but what is ordinarily to be expected Most of the Churches confusions and diviâ—â—ons have been caused by the younger sort of Christians Who are in the heat of their zeal and the infancy of understanding Who have affection enough to make them drive on but have not judgement enough to know the way None are so fierce and rash in condemning the things and persons which they understand not and in raising clamours against all that are wiser and soberer than they If they once take a thing to be a sin which is no sin or a duty which is no duty there is no person no Minister no Magistrate who hath age or wisdom or piety enough to save them from the injuries of juvenile temerity if they do not think and speak and do according to their green and raw conceits Remember therefore to be always sensible of the great disadvantages of youth and to preserve that reverence for experienced age which God in nature as well as in Scripture hath made their due If time labour were not necessary to maturity of knowledge why do you not trust another with your health as well as a studyed experienced
as carnal For ye are yet carnal v. 12. If any build on this foundation wood hay stubble v. 15. he shall suffer loss chap. 4. 18. 21. Some are puffed up Shall I come to you with a rod or in love chap. 6. 5 6 7 8. I speak to your shame Is there not a wise man among you Because yee go to Law one with another before Heathens Nay you do wrong and defraud and that your brethren Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God chap. 11. 17 18 19 20 21. I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse For first of all when you come together in the Church I hear that that there be divisions among you For there must be also Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you When you come together into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken Vers. 23. 30. He that eateth and drinketh unworthâ—ly eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body For this cause many are weak and sick among you and many sleep Chap. 14. Reproveth their abuse of unknown tongues and their disorder in Gods publike worship Chap. 15. 12 13 14 15. If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is vain yea and we are found false witnesses of God v. 17. and ye are yet in your sins 2 Cor. 12. 20 21. I fear lest when I come I shall not finde you such as I would and that I shall be found to you such as ye would not Lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes back-bitings whisperings swellings tumults and lest my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many that have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed Besides that Paul and his Ministry was slandered and much slighted among them as by his large aâ—d vehement apologies and expostulations doth appear These were the faults of the Church of the Corinthians The corruptions of the Churches of Galatia Gal. 1. 6 7 8 9. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ to another Gospel which is not another but there are some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ thoughâ—e â—e or an Augel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you than that which we have preached to you let him be accursed Chap. 3. 1 2 3. O foolish Galathians Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Are ye so foolish Having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh Have ye suffered so many things in vain chap. 4. 9. How turn yâ— again to weak and beggarly elements whereto ye desire again to be in bondage vers 10. 11. Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed on you labour in vâ—in v. 16. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law v. 29. As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now The Legalists persecuting the Apostles Chap. 5. 2. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing V. 3 4. For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of no effect to you Who ever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace v. 9. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump 12. I would they were even cut off which trouble you Chap. 6. 12. As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised The corruptions of the Church of Colosse Col. 2. 20 21 22 23. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the Commandements and Doctrines of men Which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship The corruptions of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2. 4 5. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Remember from whence thou art fallen and do thy first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remoâ—e thy Candlestick Act. 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things c. as aforesaid The corruptions of the Church of Pergamus Rev. 2. 14 15 16. I have a few things against thee because thou hast there theâ— that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate Repent or else I will The faults of the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2. 20 21 22 I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest the woman Jezebel which calleth her self a Prophetess to teach and to sedâ—ce my sâ—rvants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols The faults of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead I have not found thy works perfect before God 4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments The faults of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. 15 16 17. Thou art neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of my mouth and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I haue been thus large in citing the words of the Text to make it plain to you of what kind of Members the Visible Churches were then made up And to affect their hearts with the sense of their partiality who can plead for many things as duties and plead against many things as sin without one plain word of Scripture on their side and yet can read all these without either sense or notice Yet mark I pray you that I am far from saying that God alloweth any of these sins or that any should make light of them For all must abhor them Nor do I say that none of the Churches ought to have excommunicated any of these offenders for these sins Some of them I doubt not should have been cast out But these are the uses which I desire you to make of all these Texts First before you judge any Church to be 〈◊〉
at all for what is said Back-biters and haters of God are conjoyned Rom. 1. 30. He that back-biteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour is one that hath the mark of a Citizen of Zion Psal. 15. 3. An angry countenance must drive away a back-biting tongue Pro. 25. 23. Paul was afraid of that which we all now feel the evil of even this evil spirit which I am now detectcting 2 Cor. 12. 20. Lest there be debates eâ—vyings wraths strifes back-bitings whisperings swellings tumults and so God would humble him among them Rebuke back-bitings and whisperings or you will hardly avoid the rest of these iniquities It may be the report which you hear may be all false Or it may be it is some little matter made much greater than it is Or it may be some part of the truth is concealed and some circumstance which would make it better understood However if it be true when the reporter hath no call to speak it or when the accused is not heard speak for himself and you never heard what he hath to say there is sin and injustice in the back-biter the believer and reporter DIRECT XXII Make not your selves selves judges of other mens actions much less of their state before you have a call and before you have sufficient acquaintance or proof of the person and of the case VEry common reports and very confident presumptions may all prove injurious and false You may hear that such a family is prophane and that such a person hath no religion that such a one is covetous such a one erroneous c. and when it comes to the trial it may all prove false However it must be as false to you till you know or prove it to be true you may be ignorant of another mans faults without any faultiness of your own But you cannot rashly censure another without being your self faulty though the matter should prove true Justice must be observed as well in private as in publike judging As no Judge in any Civil or Ecclesiastical Court must condemn any man without sufficient proof which made Christ say Matth. 18. 15 16. Take one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established so no man in his own thoughts must condemn his brother by any rash or groundless sentence It is safer for you to judge better of another than he is than it is to judge worse of him than he is In many cases it may be your duty to judge better of him than he is because you must judge according to proof And if the evidence or proof deceive you it is none of your fault to be so deceived And yet you are not hereby bound to believe a falshood All that you are bound to believe is that it is probable that such a person is vertuous innocent or sincere And this is no falshood for that may be probable or likely which is not true Few well consider of the meaning of Christs words in Math. 7. 1 2. Iudge not that ye be not judged For with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again I doubt not but part of the sense may be He that judgeth without mercy of another shall have judgement without mercy from God as St. Iames expresseth it But thatâ— not all but the rest of the sense is And he that jâ—dgeth cruelly rashly and falsly of his brother shall be so judged of by other men himself Not that God will cause it but he will permit it and therefore can foretel it and make a righteous punishment of the sin which he doth but permit Do you not know that other men will censure and backbite you as boldly and as busily as you do censure and backbite others Is it such a pleasure to you to imitate the Devil the great accuser as that you will be as much accused your selves and as hardly thought of rather than you will give it over And see here how sin doth cross it self Most of the censorious are proud persons who think others much worse than themselves and therefore speak worse of their common and more ignorant neighbours that they may be thought to be no common nor ignorant persons themselves and they are offended with the Pastor of the Church for admitting such persons into communion with such as they That so their piety may be more conspicuous than their neighbours when all this while they are but preparing for their own dishonour And others will judge as bad of them When usually the meek and humble and merciful Christian who judgeth hardly of himself and tenderly of all others is tenderly and lovingly judged of by all The Prelatist saith what obstinate persons are these Non-conformists They do all to keep the approbation of their party And are they not requited by many of them whom they censure who say What temporizing hypocrites are these Formalists and Latitudinarians They would turn Papists or any thing to save their skins or get preferment What perjury or other heinous crime will they not number with things indifferent The Papist thinks the Protestant a Heretick unworthy to live on earth and therefore thirsteth for his blood And is he not requited by the censures of them that think that he is but a blood thirsty limb of Antichrist himself If he think that the Protestant cannot be saved because he is not a member of the Pope or Roman Church the Protestant requiteth him oft times with concluding that a Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate nor a worshipper of the Beast be saved If the Independent censure the Presbyterian as a favourer of looseness and formality the Presbyterian can requite him by censuring him to be an enemy to order government peace and a turbulent cause of all confusion The same I may say of all other sects It is not now my purpose to take part with any of them nor to speak against any one of them more than the rest But to them tell all of their mistake in their censorious way how certainly they prepare for the same measure and judgement which they give to others Rom. 14. 4. Who art thou that judgest another mans servant To his own mâ—ster he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand But why judgest thou thy brother or why dost thou set at nought thy brother We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God It is strange that those men that can understand a text against swearing and drunkenness can see no light nor feel no power in such words as these DIRECT XXIII Mistake not the nature of the sin of scandal Think not that it is the bare displeasing or grieving of another For it is the laying of a stumbling block
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
Errour is a common cause of separations but such as will suffer no two men to joyn together but will turn all Churâ—â—es into confusion and crumble them to dust if it be fully practised For there is no man alive that worshippeth God without some sin as I said before Do you ever pray your selves in secret or in your families without sin Must all separate from you for this Or may not you bear anothers failings as patiently as your own Your own you are still guilty of because they are your own but not of another mans which you cannot help If I believed that I were partaker of the guilt of all the false doctrine or faulty preaching or prayer which was used in the Church where I am I would flye from all the Churches in the world But whither to go I could not tell Obj. But If I joyn with them that worship God amiss do I not approve of their sin or signifie my consent to it Answ. Approving and consenting are acts of your own mind and whether you do so or not is best known to your self But it is a Profession of consent that we have now to speak of And I say that our presence at the prayers of the Church is nâ— profession of consent to all that is faulty in those prayers Why do you not offer to prove it to be so but barely affirm it without any proof I never heard a word of proof for this bare assertion to this day But it s easily disproved First no man can in reason and justice take that for my Profession which I never made by word nor deed according to the common sense of words and actions But according to this common sense I never did by word or deed profess that I consent to all which is uttered by the Pastor in the publike prayers Secondly When the profession which we make by our Church-communâ—on is publikely declared to be another thing totally distinct from this no man may justly interpret it to be this which is quite different But it is another thing which we profess by our Church-communion That is I profess my self only to be a Christian in my Baptism when I enter into the Church and in my daily communion with it And I profess to be a member of a Christian Society and to hold Communion with them in Faith and Love and in worshipping God according to his word And I proâ—ess subjection to the particular Pastors of that Church as Christian Pastors who are to teach the people that word of God and guide them in worship and discipline according to that word This is every mans profession in his Church-communion and no more unless he make some some further particular expression of more as every sect useth to do in professing the opinions of their party Why then should any lyar charge me to make a profession which I never made when my profession in my Christian communion is described by Christ himself who instituted it And why should I turn lyar against my self and say that my presence is a profession of that consent which I never made the least profession of Thirdly The wording of the publike prayers is the Pastors work and none of mine It is part of his office as the wording and methodizing of his Sermons is And if he do it well the praise is not mine but his And if he do it ill the dispraise is not mine but his Why should any hold me guilty of another mans fault which I neither can help nor belongeth to any office of mine to help any further than to admonish him Fourthly I do not profess an approbation and consent to all the faults of my own secret or family prayers Much less to another mans who is not in my power I have dâ—sorders and defects and incongruities and other faults in all my prayers And if my very speaking and committing them signifie not my approbation of them how much less is it signified where it is not I but another man that speaketh and committeth them Fifthly And as I have said This opinion would make it unlawful to joyn with any Pastor or Church on earth because no sin must be approved of and consented to and every one mixeth sin with their prayers Obj. But say those on the one extream if I joyn with one that is known to be a Separatist an Anabaptist an Antinomian an Arminian c. his own profession doth before hand bid me to expect not only that the manner but the matter of his prayer be erroneous Answ. First it is granted that no man may in his choise prefer an erring person or mode of worship before a better Secondly But when the question is not whom you should prefer but whom you may joyn with it is not his errours that are yours nor his profession that is yours I come to joyn with him as a Christian Pastor whose office is to preach the Gospel And while men are the agents I know that all that they do will be imperfect and â—aulty And it is not my knowing their â—aults that makes them mine but rather may preserve me from them Obj. But for ought I know he may put heresie or blasphemy into his prayers when I know not what he will say before I hear it Answ. For ought you know your Physician or your Cook may give you poison and your Nurse may poison your child But though that should make you careful whom you trust yet somebody must be trusted for all that You go not upon certainty in any case where man is to be trusted but upon probability Men are not to be distrusted in their own profession if they be lawfully called to it by cautelous and able triers till they have forfeited their trust And as he would not mend the matter who should make a Law that no Physician shall give any medicine but one and the same to all in such diseases and that fetcht from the Kings Apothecary And no Cook shall sell any meat but what is drest by the Kings Cooks for fear lest they should poison men so he that would say No Pastor shall preach or pray but in prescribed words lest he should speak heresie or blasphemy would but destroy the Pastoral office for fear lest it should be abused But here you have no great temptation to this errour Because though a man may poison your bodies against your wills yet no one can poyson your souls but by your own consent If he speak words of heresie or blasphemie if you disown them in your minds and consent not to them they are none of yours nor can do you hurt They may be your temptation and your grief but they are not your sin And yet I shall tell you in the next direction how far they are to be avoided Obj. But say those on the other extream When I know before hand by their Common-Prayer-Book what their errour in worship is and yet joyn in it do I not seem to approve it
living acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12. 1. They have need to make a better proof of their authority than Kelley did of his Revelation when he brought Doctor Dee to consent to adultery by the same pretended warrant God who is Love accepteth not such a sacrifice at the hands of Love-killers and Church-destroyers But especially when besides this acrimony of mind there shall other more pernicious diseases be contracted and foment these censures reproaches of their brethren the malignity of the disease is a sad prognostick Two such causes of it Paul layeth open one Act. 20. 30. the other Rom. 16. 17 18. One is the devilish sin of pride and a desire to have many disciples to be our applauders They shal speak perverse things to draw awaydisciples after them The other selfishness carnality and coveteousness They serve not the Lord Iesus but their own bellies And so 2 Pet. 2. 3. Through Coveteousness they shall with feigned words make Merchandise of you They buy and sell mens souls for gain These are Gainsayers in a double sense Their craft bringeth them in no small gain and lest it should be set at nought for gain they do gain-say the truth and raise up tumults against the best of the servants of Christ as Act. 19. 24 27. It is for gain and worldly glory that they say what they say against those that are wiser and sincerer than themselves The sum of all this and most that followeth is in 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholesome words the words of our Lord Iesus Christ mark it is not to the words of any new faith-makers devâ—sing and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud though he may cry down pride knowing nothing though he may cry down ignorance but doting about questions though he may seem to be wise and of high attainments and strifes of words while he seemeth to plead for the life of Religion whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings while they pretend to no less necessary a work than the saving of Truth and the peoples souls Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds the impatient scratchings of those whose corrupt blood must needs have vent and therefore causeth this itch of quarrelling and destitute of the truth whilest they think they are saving the life of truth supposing that gain is godliness being so blinded by the love of gain that they make themselves believe that is the cause of truth and Godliness which maketh for their gain and that the raising of them is the raising of the Church and that all tendeth to the interest of religion which tendeth to make them great and rich From such turn away that is own them not in hypocritical wranglings but turn your backs upon them as men unworthy to be disputed with in their way Answer not the fool according to his folly i. e. word it not with him in his foolish way lest you make him think himself worthy to be disputed with Talk not with him at his rates And yet answer him according to his folly by such conviction and rebukes as is meet for fooles and as may make him understand his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes and think that none can stand before him Secondly And it is commonly the most ignorant sort of Ministers who are the liberallest of their supercilious contempt of those whose understandings and worth are above their censures If a controversie be started which they either never studied or have only turned over the pages of a few books to number the sheets and never spent one year in the deep and serious search of the truth which is in question Or if they have clumsie wits that cannot feel so fine a thred nor are capable of mastering the difficulties None then are usually so ready to shoot their bolt and pass a Magisterial sentence and gravely and ignorantly tell the ignorant what eâ—rours such or such a one maintaineth as these that talk of that which they never understood For as I have known many unlearned sots that had no artifice to keep up the reputation of their learning than in all companies to cry down such and such who were wiser than themselves for no schollars but unlearned men so many that are or should be conscious of the dulness and ignorance of their fumbling and unfurnished brains have no way to keep up the reputation of their wisedome with their simple followers but to tell them O such a one hath dangerous errours and such a book is a dangerous book and they hold this and they hold that and so to make odious the opinions or practises of others which they understand not And this doth their business with these silly soals who hear not what can be said against them as well as if they were the words of truth and soberness As for the younger and emptier sort of Ministers it is no wonder if they understand not that which they had never opportunity to study or have taken but a superficial taste of But it were to be wished that they were so humble as to confess that they are yet but beardless and that time and long study is needful to make them as wise as those who with equal wit and grace have had many more years of serious study and greater opportunities to know the truth and that they have not their wisdome by special inspiration or revelation nor so far excel the rest of mankind in a miraculous wit as to know that by a few years lazy study which others know not by the laborious humble fearâ—hâ—s of a far longer time One would think that a little humility 〈…〉 the turn for thus much But it ignorance get possâ—ssion of the ancient and 〈◊〉 headed it triumpheth then and desiâ—◠〈…〉 and saith Give me a man that 〈…〉 with him Or rather Away with 〈…〉 is not worthy to be disputed 〈…〉 groweth not with years 〈…〉 wit may be poaring forty or fifty 〈…〉 that which another may sooner understand Much time and study is necessary to great wisedome But much time and study may consist with very mean attainments and doth not alwayes reach the wisedome which is sought And in such a case the ancient and grey-headed think that veneration is their due and that if they gravely sentence such or such to be erroneous they are injured if they are not believed They have not wisdome enough to make their age honourable and therefore they expect that their age should make their wisdome honourable Thirdly and because they are not able to endure the light nor to stand before the power of open truth they find it necessary to do almost all their work by back-biting When they are out of the hearing of those whom they back-bite among such as are as little sensible of this hateful sin as they then they have this man and that man this party and that party to reproach Fourthly And as Mr. Robert