those doctrines against which no Minister shall be allowed to preach and according to which he is to instruct the people 3. To be a testimony to all neighbour or forreign Churches in an heterodox contentious and suspicious age how we understand the Scriptures for the Confuting of scandals and unjust suspicions and the maintaining Communion in Faith and Charity and Doctrine Quest. 144. May not the Subscribing of the whole Scriptures serve turn for all the foresaid ends without Creeds Catechisms or Confessions Answ. BY Subscribing to the Scriptures you mean either Generally and Implicitly that All in them is True and Good though perhaps you know not what is in it Or else particularly and explicitly that every point in it is by you both understood and believed to be true In the first sense it is not sufficient to salvation For this Implicite faith hath really no act in it but a Belief that all that God faith is true which is only the formal object of faith and is no more than to believe that there is a God for a Lyar is not a God And this he may do who never believed in Christ or a word of Scripture as not taking it to be Gods Word yea that will not believe that God forbiddeth his beastly life Infidels ordinarily go thus far In the second sense of an explicite or particular Actual belief the belief of the whole Scriture is enough indeed and more than any man living can attain to No man understandeth all the Scripture Therefore that which no man hath is not to be exacted of all men or any man in order to Ministration or Communion While 1. No man can subscribe to any one Translation of the Bible that it is not faulty being the work of defectible man 2. And few have such acquaintance with the Hâ—brew and Chaldee and Greek as to be able to say that they understand the Original Languages perfectly 2. And no man that understands the words doth perfectly understand the matter It followeth that no man is to be forced or urged to subscribe to all things in the Scriptures as particularly understood by him with an Explicite faith And an Implicite is not half enough 2. The true Mean therefore is the antient way 1. To select the Essentials for all Christians to be believed particularly and explicitely 2. To Collect certain of the most needful Integrals which Teachers shall not preach against 3. And for all men moreover to profess in General that they implicitely believe all which they can discern to be the holy Canonical Scripture and that all is true which is the Word of God Forbearing each other even about the number of Canonical Books and Texts And it is the great wisdom and mercy of God which hath so ordered it that the Scripture shall 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. 13. 1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 8. 3. Rom. 8. 28. have enough to exercise the strongest and yet that the weakest may be ignorant of the meaning of a thousand sentences without danger of damnation so they do but understand the Marrow or Essentials and labour faithfully to increase in the knowledge of the rest Quest. 145. May not a man be saved that believeth all the Essentials of Religion as Coming to him by Verbal Tradition and not as contained in the holy Scriptures which perhaps he never knew Answ. 1. HE that believeth shall be saved which way ever he cometh by his belief So be it it be sound as to the object and act that is If it contain all the Essentials and they be predominantly Believed Loved and practised 2. The Scriptures being the Records of Christs Doctrine delivered by Himself his Spirit and his Apostles it is the Office of Ministers and the duty of all Instructers to open these Scriptures to those they teach and to deliver particulars upon the authority of these Inspired sealed Records which contain them 3. They that thus receive particular truths from a Teacher explaining the Scripture to them do receive them in a subordination to the Scripture Materially and as to the Teachers part though not formally and as to their own part And though the Scripture authority being not understood by them be not the formal object of their faith but only Gods authority in general 4. They that are ignorant of the being of the Scripture have a great disadvantage to their faith 5. Yet we cannot say but it may be the case of thousands to be saved by the Gospel delivered by Tradition without resolving their faith into the authority of the Scriptures For 1. This was the case of all the Christians as to the New Testament who lived before it was written And there are several Articles of the Creed now necessary which the Old Testament doth not reveal Matth. 16. 16. Rom. 10. 9 10 13 14 15. 2. This may be the case of thousands in Ignorant Countreys where the Bible being rare is to most unknown 3. This may be the case of thousands of Children who are taught their Creed and Catechism before they understand what the Bible is 4. This may be the case of thousands among the Papists where some perverse Priests do keep not only the Reading but the Knowledge of the Scriptures from the people for fear lest they should be taught to resolve their faith into it and do teach them only the Articles of Faith and Catechism as known by the Churches tradition alone Quest. 146. Is the Scripture fit for all Christians to read being so obscure Answ. 1. THe Essentials and points necessary to salvation are plain 2. We are frequently and vehemently commanded to delight in it and meditate John 5. 39. Psalm 1. 2. Deut. 6. 11. Psal. 19. 7 8 9 10 11. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psal. 119. 98 105. 133. 148. Acts 17. 11. Acts 8. in it day and night to search it to teach it our very children speaking of it at home and abroad lying down and rising up and to write it on the posts of our houses and on our doors c. 3. It is suited to the necessity and understanding of the meanest to give light to the simple and to make the very foolish wise 4. The antient Fathers and Christians were all of this mind 5. All the Christian Churches of the world have been used to Read it openly to all even to the simplest And if they may Hear it they may Read the same words which they hear 6. God blessed the ignorant Ethiopian Eunuch when he found him Reading the Scriptures though he knew not the sense of what he read and sent him Philip to instruct him and convert him 7. Timothy was educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures in his childhood 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. Mat. 12. 24. 8. That which is written to and for all men may be read by all that can But the Scripture was written to and for all c. Object But there are many things in it hard to be understood Answ.
â—3 Rom. 8. 9. 1 John 3. 24. John 3. 5 6. Many Romish Priests and others do so without the Ministry of man to preserve deliver translate expound and preach it to the people 5. And those that think it sufficient to sanctifie men without the concourse of the Spirits illumination vivification and inward operation to that end 6. And they that say that no man can be saved by the knowledge belief love and practice of all the substantial parts of Christianity brought to him by Tradition Parents or Preachers who tell him nothing of the Scriptures but deliver him the Doctrines as attested by Miracles and the Spirit without any notice of the Book 7. And those that say that Scripture alone must be made use of as to all the History of Scripture Times and that it is unlawful to make use of any other Historians as Iosephus and such others 8. And they that say no other Books of Divinity but Scripture are useful yea or lawful to be read of Christians or at least in the Church 9. And they that say that the Scriptures are so Divine not only in Matter but in Method and Style as that there is nothing of humane inculpable imperfection or weakness in them 10. And those that say that the Logical Method and the phrase is as perfect as God was able to make them 11. And they that say that all passages in Scripture historically related are Moral Truths And so make the Devils words to Eve of Iob to Christ c. to be all true 12. And they that say that all passages in the Scripture were equally obligatory to all other places and ages as to those that first received them As the kiss of peace the Vails of women washing feet anointing the sick Deaconesses c. 13. And they that make Scripture so perfect a Rule to our belief that nothing is to be taken for certain that cometh to us any other way As natural knowledge or historical 14. And those that think men may not translate the Scripture turn the Psalms into Metre tune them divide the Scripture into Chapters and Verses c. as being derogatory alterations of the perfect Word 15. And those that think it so perfect a particular rule of all the Circumstances Mâ—des Adjuncts and external expressions of and in Gods Worship as that no such may be invented or added by man 1 Cor. 14. 33 40. 26. that is not there prescribed As Time Place Vesture Gesture Utensils Methods Words and many other things mentioned before 16. And those that Jewishly feign a multitude of unproved mysteries to lye in the Letters Orders Numbers and proper Names in Scriptures though I deny not that there is much mysterie which we little observe 17. They that say that the Scripture is all so plain that there is no obscure or difficult passages in them which men are in danger of wresting to their own destruction 18. And they that say that All in the Scripture is so necessary to salvation even the darkest Prophecies Heb. 5. 10 11 12. that they cannot be saved that understand them not all or at least endeavour not studiously and particularly to understand them 19. And they that say that every Book and Text must of necessity to salvation be believed to be Canonical and true 20. And those that say that God hath so preserved the Scripture as that there are no various readings Of which see Lud. Capellus Crit. Saâ—â— and doubtful Texts thereupon and that no written or printed Copies have been corrupted when Dr. Heylin tells us that the Kings Printer printed the seventh Commandment Thou shalt commit adultery All these err in over-doing III. The dangers of the former detracting from the Scripture are these 1. It injureth the Spirit who is the author of the Scriptures 2 It striketh at the foundation of our faith by weakning the Records which are left us to believe And emboldneth men to sin by diminishing the authority of Gods Law And weakneth our Hopes by weakning the promises 3. It shaketh the universal Government of Christ by shaking the anthority or perfection of the Laws by which he governeth 4. It maketh way for humane Usurpations and Traditions as supplements to the holy Scriptures And leaveth men to contrive to amend Gods Word and Worship and make Co-ordinate Laws and Doctrines of their own 5. It hindereth the Conviction and Conversion of sinners and hardneth them in unbelief by questioning or weakning the means that should convince and turn them 6. It is a tempting men to the Cursed adding to Gods Word IV. The dangers of over-doing here are these 1. It leadeth to downright Infidelity For when men find that the Scripture is imperfect or wanting in that which they fansie to be part of its perfection and to be really insufficient e. g. to teach men Physicks Logick Medicine Languages c. they will be apt to say It is not of God because it hath not that which it pretends to have 2. God is made the Author of defects and imperfections 3. The Scripture is exposed to the scorn and confutation of Infidels 4. Papists are assisted in proving its imperfection But I must stop having spoke to this point before in Quest. 35. and partly Quest. 30. 31. 33. more at large Quest. 167. How far do good men now Preach and Pray by the Spirit Answ. 1. NOt by such Inspiration of new matter from God as the Prophets and Apostles had which indited the Scriptures 2. Not so as to exclude the exercise of Reason Memory or Diligence which must be as much and more than about any common things 3. Not so as to exclude the use and need of Scripture Ministry Sermons Books Conference Examples Use or other means and helps But 1. The Spirit indited that Doctrine and Scripture which is our Rule for prayer and for preaching 2. The Spirits Miracles and works in and by the Apostles seal that doctrine to us and confirm Heb. 2. 3 4. 1 Peâ— 1. 2 22. 2 Thess. 1. 13. John 3. 5 6. Rom. 8. 9. Rom. 8. 15 16 26 27. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Nehem. 9. 20. Isa. 11 â— Ezek. 36. 26. 37. 14. Gal. 4. 6. Zech. 12. 10. Ezek. 18. 31. 11. 19. Rom. 7. 6. John 4. 23 24. 7. 38 39. 1 Cor. 2 10 11. 1 Cor. 6. 11 17. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Gal. 5. 5 16 17 18 25. Ephes. 3. 16. 5. 9 18. 6. 18. 1 Thess. 5. 19. our faith in it 3. The Spirit in our faithful Pastors and Teachers teacheth us by them to pray and preach 4. The Spirit by Illumination Quickning and Sanctification giveth us an habitual acquaintance with our sins our wants with the word of precept and promise with God with Christ with Grace with Heaven And it giveth us a Habit of holy Love to God and Goodness and Thankfulness for mercy and faith in Christ and the life to come and desires of perfection and hatred of sin And he
love of Christ and one another and 1 John 3. 16. that we forgive and pray for them that persecute us 24. In all this suffering from men he feels also so much of the fruit of our sin upon his soul that he cryeth out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me To teach us if we fall into such calamity of soul as to think that God himself forsaketh us to remember for our support that the Son of God himself before us cryed out My God why hast thou forsaken me And that in this also we may expect a tryal to seem to our selves Forsaken of God when our Saviour underwent the like before us I will instance in no more of his example because I would not be tedious Hither now let believers cast their eyes If you love your Lord you should love to imitate him and be glad to find your selves in the way that he hath gone before you If He lived a worldly or a sensual life do you do so If He was an enemy to preaching and praying and holy living be you so But if he lived in the greatest contempt of all the wealth and honours and pleasures of the world in a life of holy obedience to his Father wholly preferring the Kingdom of Heaven and seeking the salvation of the souls of others and patiently bearing persecution derision calumnies and death then take up your Cross and follow him in joyfully to the expected Crown § 7. Direct 6. If you will Learn of Christ you must Learn of his Ministers whom he hath appointed Direct 6. under him to be the Teachers of his Church He purposely enableth them enclineth them and sendeth them to instruct you Not to have dominion over your faith but to be your spiritual Fathers and the Ministers by whom you believe as God shall give ability and success to every one as he pleases to plant and water while God giveth the encrease to open mens eyes and turn them from darkness to light and to be labourers together with God whose husbandry and building you are and to be helpers of your joy See 2 Cor. 24. Acts 26. 17 18. 1 Cor. 3. 5 6 7 8 9. 4. 15. Seeing therefore Christ hath appointed them under him to be the ordinary Teachers of his Church he that heareth them speaking his message heareth him and he that despiseth them despiseth him Luke 10. 16. And he that saith I will hear Christ but not you doth say in effect to Christ himself I will not hear thee nor learn of thee unless thou wilt dismiss thy Ushers and teach me immediately thy self § 8. Direct 7. Hearken also to the secret Teachings of his Spirit and your consciences not as makeing Direct 7. you any new Law or Duty or being to you instead of Scriptures or Ministers but as bringing that truth into your Hearts and practices which Scriptures and Ministers have first brought to your eyes and ears If you understand not this how the office of Scripture and Ministers differ from the office of the Spirit and your Consciences you will be confounded as the Sectaries of these times have been that separate what God hath joyned together and plead against Scripture or Ministers under pretence of extolling the Spirit or the Light within them As your meat must be taken into the stomach and pass the first concoction before the second can be performed and chilification must be before sanguification so the Scripture and Ministers must bring truth to your eyes and ears before the Spirit or Conscience bring them to your Hearts and Practice But they lye dead and uneffectual in your brain or imagination if you hearken not to the secret teachings of the Spirit and Conscience which would bring them further As Christ is the principal Teacher without and Ministers are but under him so the Spirit is the principal Teacher within us and Conscience is but under the Spirit being excited and informed by it Those that learn only of Scriptures and Ministers by hearing or reading may become men of Learning and great ability though they hearken not to the sanctifying teachings of the Spirit or to their Consciences But it is only those that hearken first to the Scriptures and Ministers and next to the Spirit of God and to their Consciences that have an inward sanctifying saving knowledge and are they that are said to be Taught of God Therefore hearken first with your ears what Christ hath to say to you from without and then hearken daily and diligently with your hearts what the Spirit and Conscience say within For it is their office to preach over all that again to your Hearts which you have received § 9. Direct 8. It being the office of the present ordinary Ministry only to expound and apply the doctrine Direct 8 of Christ already recorded in the Scriptures believe not any man that contradicteth this recorded doctrine what Reason Authority â—r Revelation soever he pretend Isa. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimâ—ny if they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them No Reason can be Reason indeed that is pretended against the Reason of the Creator and God of Reason Authority pretended against the Highest Authority of God is no Authority God never gave Authority to any against himself nor to deceive mens souls nor to dispense with the Law of Christ nor to warrant men to sin against him nor to make any supplements to his Law or Doctrine The Apostles had their â— Câ—â— 10 8. â—â—â—â—â— 1â— â—â— Power only to â—diâ—ication but not to destruction There is no Revelation from God that is contrary to his own Revelation already delivered as his perfect Law and Rule unto the Church and therefore none supplemental to it If an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven per possibile vel impossibile shall Evangelize to us besides what is Evangelized and we have received he must be held accursed Gal. 1. 6 7 8. § 10. Direct 9. Come not to Learn of Christ with self conceitedness pride or confidence in your prejudice 〈◊〉 9. and errors but as little Children with humble teachable tractable minds Christ is no Teacher for those that in their own eyes are wise enough already unless it be first to teach them to become fools in their own esteem because they are so indeed that they may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. They that are prepossessed with false opinions and resolve that they will never be perswaded of the contrary are unmeet to be Scholars in the School of Christ. He resisteth the proud but giveth more grace unto the 1 Pâ—â— 5. â— humble Men that have a high conceit of their own understandings and think they can easily know truth from falshood as soon as they hear it and come not to learn but to censure what they hear or read as being able presently to judge of all these are fitter for the School of the Prince of Pride and
by decisive Iudicial â—entence Nor any Universal Civil Monarch of the world 2. The publick Governing Decisive judgement obliging others belongeth to publick persons or Officers Eph. 4. 7 13 14 15 16. of God and not to any private man 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. 17. 3. The publick decision of Doubts or Controversies about Faith it self or the true sense of Gods Word and Laws as obliging the whole Church on Earth to believe that decision or not gainsay it Acts 15. See my Key for Catholicks because of the Infallibility or Governing authority of the Deciders belongeth to none but Jesus Christ Because as is said he hath made no Universal Governour nor Infallible Expositor It belongeth to the Law-giver only to make such an Universally obliging Exposition of his own Laws 4. True Bishops or Pastors in their own particular Churches are Authorized Teachers and Guides in Expounding the Laws and Word of Christ And the people are bound as Learners to reverence their Teaching and not contradict it without true cause yea and to believe them fide humanâ in things pertinent to their Office For oportet discentem credere 5. No such Pastors are to be Absolutely believed nor in any case of notorious Error or Heresie where the Word of God is discerned to be against them 6. For all the people as Reasonable creatures have a judgement of private discerning to judge what they must Receive as Truth and to discern their own duty by the help of the Word of God and of their Teachers 7. The same power of Governing-Iudgement Lawful Synods have over their several flocks as a Pastor over his own but with greater advantage 8. The power of Judging in many Consociate Churches who is to be taken into Communion as Orthodox and who to be refused by those Churches as Hereticks in specie that is what Doctrine they will judge sound or unsound as it is Iudicium discernendi belongeth to every one of the Council â—ingly As it is a Iudgement obliging themselves by Contract and not of Governing each other it is in the Contracters and Consenters And for peace and order usually in the Major Vote But with the Limitations before expressed 9. Every true Christian believeth all the Essentials of Christianity with a Divine faith and not by a meer humane belief of his Teachers though by their Help and Teaching his faith is generated and confirmed and preserved Therefore no essential Article of Christianity is left to any obliging decision of any Church but only to a subservient obliging Teaching As whether there be a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell an Immortality of souls whether God be to be believed loved feared obeyed before man Whether the Scripture be Gods Word and true Whether those that contradict it are to be believed therein Whether Pastors Assemblies publick Worship Baptism Sacrament of the Lords Supper be Divine institutions And the same I may say of any known Word of God No mortals may judge in partem utramliâ—et but the Pastors are only Authorized Teachers and helpers of the peoples faith And so they be partly to one another 10. If the Pope or his Council were the Infallible or the Governing Expositors of all Gods Laws and Scriptures 1. God would have enabled them to do it by an Universal Commentary which all men should be obliged to believe or at least not to contradict For there is no Authority and Obligation given to men yea to so many successively to do that for the needful decision of Controversies which they never have Ability given them to do For that were to oblige them to things impossible 2. And the Pope and his Council would be the most treacherous miscreants on earth that in so many hundred years would never write such an Infallible nor Governing Commentary to end the differences of the Christian world Indeed they have judged with others against Arrius that Christ is true God and one with the Father in substance c. But if they had said the contrary must we have taken it for Gods truth or have believed them 11. To judge who for Heresie or Seandal shall be punished by the Sword belongeth to none but the Magistrate in his own dominions As to judge who shall have Communion or be excommunicated from the Church belongeth as aforesaid to the Pastors And the said Magistrate hath first as a man his own Iudgement of discerning what is Heresie and who of his subjects are guilty of it in order to his publick Governing Judgement 12. The Civil Supream Ruler may Antecedently exercise this Judgement of Discerning by the Teaching of their proper Teachers in order to his consequent sentences on offenders And so in his Laws may tell the subjects what Doctrines and practices he will either Tolerate or punish And thus may the Church Pastors do in their Canons to their several flocks in relation to Communion or non-communion 13. He that will condemn particular persons as Hereticks or offenders must allow them to speak for themselves and hear the proofs and give them that which justice requireth c. And if the Pope can do so at the Antipodes and in all the world either per se or per alium without giveing that other his essential claimed power let him prove it by better experience than we have had 14. As the prime and sole-universal Legislation belongeth to Jesus Christ so the final Judgement universal and particular belongeth to him which only will end all Controversies and from which there is no appeal Quest. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastor or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their flock be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship THis being toucht on somewhere else I only now say 1. That if the case were my own I would 1. Labour to know their different Powers as to the matter commanded and obey each in that which is proper to his place 2. If I were young and ignorant Natural necessity and natural obligation together would give my Parents with whom I lived such an advantage above the Minister whom I seldome see or understand as would determine the case de eventu and much de jure 3. If my Parents commanded me to hear a Teacher who is against Ceremonies or certain Forms and to hear none that are for them natural necessity here also ordinarily would make it my duty first to hear and obey my Parents And in many other cases till I came to understand the greater power of the Pastors in their own place and work 4. But when I come to Church or know that the judgement of all Concordant Godly Pastors condemneth such a thing as damnable Heresie or Sin which any Father commandeth me to receive and profess I would more believe and follow the Judgement of the Pastors and Churches Quest. 30. May an Office Teacher or Pastor be at once in a stated Relation of a Pastor and a
of the world III. If laying the hand on the Book and Kissing it be unlawful for any special matter or manner forbidden more than other significant acts it is for some of the reasons named by you which now I will answer I. Object It savoureth of the Romish superstition Answ. 1. Not at all Prove that if you can 2. Superstition is the feigning of things to be Pleasing or Displeasing to God which are not and using or disusing them accordingly whatever be the Etymologie of the word Superstitum Cultus or supra Statutum c. it is certain that the common use of it among Heathens as Plutark at large and Christians was for an erroneous undue fear of God thinking this or that was displeasing or pleasing to him to be done or to be avoided which was not so but was the conceit of a frightned mistaking mind Therefore to say that God is displeased with this signification of the mind when it is not so nor can be proved is superstition And this is not the solitary instance of Satans introducing superstition under pretense of avoiding superstition 3. The sense of the Law is to be judged of by the Law and by the notorious doctrine and profession of the Law-makers and of the Land which here renounceth the superstitious use of it But I confess I was more afraid that the Papists had too much derogated from the Scripture than given too much to it And they profess that they swear not by a creature Vid. Perer. ubi sup in Gen. 24. 2. Object But Paraeus c. in Gen. 24. 2. saith Non absque superstitione fit cum super crucifixum aut codicem Evangelii digitis impositis juratur ut fit in Papatu Answ. 1. But that same Act which in Papatu is superstitious because of superstitious conceits and ends is not so in all others that have none such 2. It is no new thing to be quick in accusing our adversaries But Paraeus addeth not a syllable of proof And if he had it must have been such as toucht not us or else invalid Object Some good men have scrupled it Answ. 1. Ten thousand to one such have not scrupled it 2. They are not our Gods nor Law 3. The Quakers and the old Anabaptists and they say Origen scrupled yea condemned all swearing or all imposed Oaths And if we avoid all as sin which some good men have scrupled we shall make superstition a great part of our Religion And when on the same grounds we have but practised all as Duty which some good men have taken for Duty we shall quite out-go the Papists He that readeth Beda Boniface and abundance such pious writers will soon see that Godly or Fanatical Religious persons dreams visions strict opinions confident assertions and credulous believing one another with the hope of improving such things against Pagans and Jews for Christianity brought in almost all the Legends and superstitions of the Papists II. Object 2. Our Common-Law Commissions that give authority to examine persons direct it to be Object done super sacramenta sua per sancta Dei evangelia fideliter prestanda And in the form of Administrations in Ecclesiastical Courts the words are Ad sancta Dei Evangelia rite legitime jurati Whether these forms do not infer that in their first use at least persons either swore by the Evangelists or offended in that mode of swearing And our Common-Law calls it a Corporal Oath from touching the Book Answ. 1. To know the sense of our present Law it is not necessary that we know the sense of the Answ. first users of the form For the Law is not now the Kings Law that first made it He hath no Law that hath no Government but the Kings Law that now Reigneth and beareth his sense 2. To justifie our obedience to a Law it is not necessary that we prove every phrase in that Law to be fitly expressed 3. But examine it well and try whether it be not also fit and laudable 1. There are three things conjoyned in the Oaths in question 1. A testimony assertory or a promise 2. An Oath 3. An Imprecation The Assertory Testimony here is the first thing intended and the Oath and Imprecation are but as a means to make that Testimony or Promise valid 2. The published Doctrine of England in the 39. Articles the book of Ordination c. is that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to Salvation as being Gods Law or Rule of our Faith and Life All our Duty to God is there commanded All the promises on which we hope are there contained All the punishments which the perjured or any sinner must feel and should fear are there threatned Therefore 3. The Laying on the hand and Kissing the book is an Action directly related to the Imprecation and not to the Oath but only by consequence as the Imprecation is subservient to the Oath as the Oath is to the Assertion So that this is the plain paraphrase of the whole I do believe that God the Ruler of all the world is the Iudge of secrets which are above mans judgement the searcher of hearts and the hater and avenger of perjury according to this his holy word by which he governeth us And to this God I appeal as to the truth of this my testimony consenting my self to lose all the benefit of his promises to the just and to bear all the punishments here threatned to the Perjured if I lie And what could be said more fitly 1. To own the Protestant doctrine that the Scripture is Gods perfect word that the evil to be feared and the good to be hoped for is all there contained and is all the fulfilling of that word 2. And to put the word in its due subordination to God And our ordinary form of swearing sheweth this So help you God and the Contents of this Book Whether you will call this swearing upon or by the Gospel or call it a corporal Oath or a spiritual Oath is only de nomine and is nothing to the matter thus truly described Sacramentum signifieth the Oath it self and Ad sancta evangelia is a fit phrase or if super sacramenta signifie the two Sacraments of the Gospel it can mean no more than As one that by the reception of the Sacrament doth profess to believe this Gospel to be true I do renounce the benefits of it if I lie And in this sense it hath been some mens custom to receive the Sacrament when they would solemnly swear III. Object Some seem to object against kissing the Book as having the greater appearance of giving Object too much to it or putting some adoration on it and because this Ceremony of kissing is held to be of later date than laying on the hand Answ. The Ceremony signifieth that I love and approve the Gospel and place the hope of my salvation Answ. in it And the publick Doctrine of the Kingdom before cited sheweth as a
faith or Religion while he pretendeth to hold all the rest he is an Heretick If he deny the whole Christian faith he is a flat Apostate and these are more than to be Schismaticks § 12. The word Heresie also is variously taken by Ecclesiastick writers Austin will have Heresie to be an inveterate schism Hierome maketh it to be some perverse opinion Some call every Schism which gathereth a separated party from the rest by the name of Heresie Some call it a Heresie if there be a perillous errour though without any Schism Some call it a Heresie only when Schism is made and a party separated upon the account of some perillous errour Some say this errour must be damnable that is in the essentials of Religion And some say it is enough if it be but dangerous Among all these the commonest sense of a Heretick is One that obstinately erreth in some essential point and divideth from the Communion of other Christians upon that account And so Paraeus and many Protestants take Heresie for the Species and Schism for the Genus All Schism is not Heresie but all Heresie say they is Schism Remember that all this is but a Controversie de nomine and therefore of small moment § 13. By this that I have said you may perceive who they be that are guilty of Church-divisions Who are true Schismaticks As 1. The sparks of it are kindled when Proud and self-conceited persons are brainsick in the fond estimation of their own opinions and heart-sick by a feaverish zeal for the propagating of them Ignorant souls think that every change of their opinions is made by such an accession of heavenly light that if they should not bestir them to make all of the same mind they should be betrayers of the truth and do the world unspeakable wrong When they measure and censure men as they receive or reject their peculiar discoveries or conceits schism is in the Egge § 14. 2 The fire is blown up when men are desirous to have a party follow them and cry them up and thereupon are busie in perswading others to be of their mind and do speak perverse things to Act. 20. 20. draw away disciples after them And when they would be counted the Masters of a party § 15. 3. The flames break forth when by this means the same Church or divers Churches do Jam. 3. 13 14 15 16 17. fall into several Parties burning in zeal against each other abating charity censuring and condemning one another backbiting and reviling each other through envy and strife when they look strangely at one another as being on several sides as if they were not Children of the same Father nor members of the same body or as if Christ were divided one being of Paul and another of Apollo and another of Cepha◠and every one of a faction letting out their thoughts in jealousies and evil surmises of each other perverting the words and actions of each to an ugly sense and snatching occasions to represent one another as fools or odious to the hearers as if you should plainly say I pray you hate or despise these people whom I hate and despise This is the core of the Plague sore It is schism in the bud § 16. 4. When people in the same Church do gather into private meetings not under the guidance of their Pastors to edifie one another in holy exercises in Love and peace but in opposition to their lawful Pastors or to one another to propagate their singular opinions and increase their parties and speak against those that are not on their side schism is then ready to bring forth and multiply and the swarm is ready to come forth and be gone § 17. 5. When these people actually depart and renounce or forsake the Communion of the Church and cast off their faithful Pastors and draw into a separated body by themselves and choose them Pastors and call themselves a Church and all without any just sufficient cause When thus Churches are gathered out of Churches before the old ones are dissolved or they have any warrant to depart when thus Pastor is set up against Pastor Church against Church and Altar against Altar this is schism ripe and fruitful The swarm is gone and hived in another place § 18. 6. If now the neighbour Churches by their Pastors in their Synods shall in compassion seek to reclaim these straglers and they justifie their unjust separation and contemn the counsel of the Churches and Ministers of Christ this is a confirmed obstinate schism § 19. 7. If they shall also judge that Church to be no Church from which they separated and so cut off a part of the body of Christ by an unrighteous censure and condemn the innocent and usurp authority over their Guides this is disobedience and uncharitableness with schism § 20. 8. If they shall also condemn and unchurch all the other Churches that are not of their mind and way and renounce communion with them all and so condemn unjustly a great part of the Body of Christ on Earth this is to add fury and rebellion to an uncharitable schism And if to cover their sin they shall unjustly charge these Churches which they reject with Heresie or wickedness they do but multiply their crimes by such extenuations § 21. 9. If the opinion that all this adoe is made for be a damning errour against some essential point of the true Religion then it is Heresie as well as Schism § 22. 10. If this separation from the Church be made in defense of an ungodly life against the Discipline of the Church If a wicked sort of men shall withdraw from the Church to avoid the disgrace of confession or excommunication and shall first cast off the Church lest the Church should proceed to cast out them and so they separate that they may have none to govern and trouble them but themselves this is a Prophane rebellious schism This is the common course of schism when it groweth towards the height § 23. 11. Besides all these there is yet a more pernicious way of Schism which the Church or Court of Rome is guilty of They make new articles of faith and new points of Religion and a new worship of God shall I say or of Bread as if it were a God And all these they put into a Law and impose them on all the other Churches yea they put them into an Oath and require men to swear that without any doubting they believe them to be true They pretend to have authority for all this as Rome is the Mistress of all other Churches They set up a new Universal Head as an Essential part of the Catholick Church and so found or fain a new kind of Catholick Church And he that will not obey them in all this they renounce Communion with him and to hide this horrid notorious schism they call all Schismaticks that are not thus subjected to them § 24. 12. And to advance
men were before when once they converse together and grow acquainted they are more reconciled The reason is partly because they find less evil and more good in one another than before they did believe to be in them and partly because uncharitableness and malice being an ugly monster is bolder at a distance but ashamed of it self before your face And therefore the pens of the Champions of malice are usually more bitter than their tongues when they speak to you face to face Of all the furious adversaries that have raged against me in the later part of my life I remember not one enemy that I have or ever had that was ever familiar or acquainted with me And I have my self heard ill reports of many which by personal acquaintance I have found to be all false Keep together and either silence your differences or gently debate them yea rather chide it out than withdraw asunder Familiarity feedeth Love and Unity § 106. Direct 23. When ever you look at any corruption in the Church look also at the contrary exâ—râ—am Direct 23. and see and avoid the danger of one as well as of the other Be sure every error and Church-corruption hath its extream And if you do not see it and the danger of it you are the liker to run into it Look well on both sides if you would be safe § 107. Direct 24. Worship God your selves in the purest manner and under the most edifying Ministry Direct 24. that lawfully you can attain but be not too forward to condemn others that reach not to your measure or attain not so much happiness And deny not personal communion sometimes with Churches that are more blemished and fit for Communion And when you cannot joyn locally with them let them have the communion of your Hearts in faith and charity and prayer for each other I fear not here openly to tell the world that if I were turned loose to my own liberty I would ordinarily worship God in that manner that I thought most pure and agreeable to his Will and Word but I would sometimes go to the Churches of other Christians that were fit for Christian communion if there were such about me Sometime to the Independants sometime to the moderate Anabaptists sometime to such as had a Liturgie as faulty as that of the Greek or the Ethiopian Churches to shew by my practice what communion my heart hath with them all § 108. Direct 25. Take heed that you interess not Religion or the Church in Civil differences This Direct 25. error hath divided and ruined many famous Churches and most injuriously made the holy truth and worship of God to be a reproach and infamy among selfish partial carnal men When Princes and Since the writing of this I have published a Book called The Curt of Church-Divistoâ—s and a Defence of it which handle these things more fully States fall out among themselves they will needs draw the Ministers to their sides and then one side will certainly condemn them and call them all that self-interest and malice can invent And commonly when the controversie is only in point of Law or Politicks it is Religion that bears the blame of all and the differences of Lawyers and Statesmen must be charged upon Divines that the Devil may be able to make them useless as to the good of all that party that is against them and may make Religion it self be called Rebellion And O that God would maintain the Peace of Kingdoms and Kings and Subjects were all Lovers of peace the rather because the differences in States do cause so commonly divisions in the Church It would make a man wonder and a lover of History to lament to observe in the differences between the Pope and Henry the fourth and other Emperours how the Historians are divided one half commending him that the other half condemneth and how the Bishops and Churches were one half for the Pope and the other for the Emperour and one half still accounted Rebels or Schismaticks by the other though they were all of one Religion It is more to ruine the Church than Kingdoms that Satan laboureth so much to kindle Warrs and breed Civil differences in the world And therefore let him that loveth the Churches Peace be an obedient Subject and an enemy of Sedition and a Lover and defender of the Civil Peace and Government in the place that God hath set him in For this is pleasing unto God § 109. I know there are some that with too bloody and calamitous success have in most ages given other kind of Directions for the extirpation of Error Heresie and Schism than I have here given But God hath still caused the most wise and holy and charitable and experienced Christians Bâ—â—a Hist. Ecâ—lâ—sâ—â—ib 1. cap. 26. Didicerat enim Rex Edilberth a Doctoribut auctoribusque suae salutis servitium Christi voluntarium non coactitium debeâ—e esse to bear their testimony against them And he hath ever caused their way of cruelty to turn to their own shame And though like Treasons and Robberies it seem for the time present to serve their turn it is bitterness in the end and leaveth a stinking memorial of their names and actions to posterity And the Treatises of Reconcilers such as our Halls Ushers Bergius Burroughs and many other by the delectable savour of Unity and Charity are sweet and acceptable to prudent and peaâ—â—able persons though usually unsuccessful with the violent that needed them Besides the fore-cited witness of Sr. Francis Bacon c. I will here add one of the most antient and one or two of this age whom the contrary-minded do mention with the greatest honour Iustin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. doth at large give his judgement that a Judaizing Christian who thinketh it best to be circumciâ—â—d and keep the Law of Moses be suffered in his opinion and practice and admitted to the communion and priviledges of the Church and loved as one that may be saved in that way so be it he do not make it his business to perswade others to his way and teach it as necessary to salvation or communion For such he doth condemn King Iames by the Pen of Is. Causabone telleth Cardinal du Perron that His Majesty thinketh that for Concord there is no nearer way than diligently to separate things necessary from the unnecessary and to bestow all our labour that we may agree in the things necessary and that in things unnecessary there may be place given for Christian Liberty The King calleth these things simply necessary which either the Word of God expresly commandeth to be believed or done or which the antient Church did gather from the Word of God by necessary consequence Grotius Annot. in Matth. 13. 41. is so full and large upon it that I must intreat the Reader to peruse his own words where by arguments and authority he-vehemently rebuketh the Spirit of fury cruelty and uncharitableness which
order to our Absolution and Communion 4. Especially so far as is necessary to subdue our fleshly lusts and tame our bodies and bring them into a due subjection to our faith and to avoid our sin for the time to come And also by 2 Cor. 7. 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9 27. Col. 1. 5 6. Rom. 13 13 14. the exercise of sober mortification prudently to keep under all our worldly phantasies and love of this present world without unfitting our selves for duty 5. And so far as is needful by such mortification to fit us for fervent prayer especially by fasting on dayes of humiliation and to help us in our meditations of death and judgement and to further our heavenly contemplations and conversation 6. The greatest difficulty is Whether any self-revenge be lawful or due which is answered by Psal. 69. 10. Lev. 16. 29 31. â—3 27 32. Numb 29. 7. 30. 13. Ezra 8. 21. what is said already None such as disableth us for Gods service is lawful But true Repentance is an anger or great displeasure with our selves for sin and a hatred of sin and loathing of our selves for it And to judge condemn and afflict our own souls by a voluntary self-punishing is but that exercise of justice on our selves which is fit for pardoned sinners that are not to be condemned by the Lord and indeed the just exercise of Repentance and displeasure against our selves On which accounts of sober self-revenge we may cherish such degrees of godly sorrow fasting course cloathing as Sackcloth and denying our selves the pleasures of this world as shall not be hurtful but helpful to our duty And if great and heinous sinners have of old on these terms exceeded other men in their austerities and self-afflictings we cannot condemn them of superstition unless we more particularly knew more cause for it But popishly to think that self-afflicting without respect to Isa. 58. 5. such causes or necessities is a meritorious perfection fit for others is superstition indeed And â—o think as many of the Melancholy do that self-murder is a lawful self-revenge is a heinous sin and leadeth to that which is more heinous and dangerous Quest. 101. Is it lawful to observe stated times of fasting imposed by others without extraordinary occasion And particularly Lent Answ. REmember that I here meddle not with the question how far it is lawful for Rulers to 2 Chron. 20 3. Ezâ—a 8. 21. Jonah 3. 5. Zech. 8. 19. Joel 2. 15. Read Dallaeus Treatise de Iejuniis impose such Fasts on others save only to say 1. That it is undoubtedly fit for Kings to do it by Precepts and Churches by Consent in extraordinary cases of defection sin or judgements 2. That it is undoubtedly sinful usurpation for either Pope or any pretended Ecclesiastical Universal Rulers to impose such on the Universal Church Because there are no Universal Rulers Or for a neighbour Bishop by usurpation to impose it on a neighbour Church 3. And that it is sinful in all or many Churches to make by their Agreements such things to be necessary to their Union or Communion with their neighbour Churches so that they will take all those for Schismaticks that differ from them in such indifferent things But as to the Using of such fasts omitting the imposing I say I. 1. Thâ—â— so great and extraordinary a duty as holy fasting must not be turned into a meer Isa. 58. 3 5 6 7 8. formality oâ— ceremony 2. No particular man must be so observant of a publick commanded anniversary fast as for it to neglect any duty commanded him by God which is inconsistent with it As to rejoyce or keep a day of Thanksgiving in Lent upon an extraordinary obliging cause To keep the Lords day in Lent as a day of Thanksgiving and Rejoycing To preserve our own health c. It is not lawful in obedience to man to fast so much or use such dyet as is like to destroy our lives or health These being not so far put into the power of man Nor can man dispence with us as to the duty of self-preservation If God himself require us not to offer him our lives and health needlesly as an acceptable Sacrifice nor ever maketh self-destruction our duty no nor any thing that is not for mans own good then we are not to believe without very clear proof that either Prince or Prelates have more power than ever God doth use himself 3. Such an Anniversary fast as is meet for the remembrance of some sin or judgement if commanded is to be kept both for the Reason of it and for the Authority of the Commander For 1. It is not unlawful as Anniversary For 1. It is not forbidden and 2. There may be just occasion Some arbitrarily keep an anniversary fast on the day of their Nativity as I have long done and some on the day that they fell into some great sin and some on the day of the death of a friend or of some personal domestick or National Calamity and none of this is forbidden 2. And that which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful to be done because it is commanded seeing obedience to superiours is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things 4. Whether it be lawful or meet to commemorate Christs sufferings by anniversary fasts is next to be considered II. As for Lent in particular We must distinguish 1. Between the antient Lent and the later Lent 2. Between keeping it on a Civil account and on a Religious 3. Between true fasting and change of dyet 4. Between the Imitation of Christs fourty dayes fasting and the meer Commemoration of it Which premised I conclude 1. The keeping a true Fast or Abstinence from food for fourty dayes on what account soever being impossible or self-murder is not to be attempted 2. The Imitation of Christ in his fourty dayes fasting is not to be attempted or pretended to Because his miraculous works were not done for our imitation And it is presumption for us to pretend to such a power as is necessary to Miracles or yet to make any Essayes at such an imitation any more than at the raising of the dead 3. The pretending of a fast when men do but change their dyet Flesh for Fish Fruit Sweet-meats c. is but hypocritical and ridiculous Most poor labourers and temperate Ministers do live all the year on a more flesh-denying dyet and in greater abstinence than many Papists do in Lent or on their fasting dayes And what a ridiculous dispute is it to hear e. g. a Calvin that never eateth but one small meal a day for many years to plead against the keeping of the Popish fasts and their Clergy call him voracious and carnal and an Epicure and plead for fasting as holy mortification who eat as many meals and as much meat on a Lent day or fasting day as Calvin did in three feasting dayes and drink as much Wine in
in the Scripture we have it more certainly revealed already Therefore the Revelation can be nothing but an assistance of the persons faith or a call to obedience or a reproof of some sin which every man is to believe according as there is true evidence that indeed it is a Divine Revelation or Vision which if it be not the same thing is still sure to us in the Scripture 3. If it be something that is only Besides the Scripture as about events and facts or Prophecies of what will befall particular places or persons we must first see whether the evidence of a Divine revelation be clear in it or not And that is known 1. To the person himself by the self-attesting and convincing power of a Divine Revelation which no man knoweth but he that hath it And we must be very cautelous lest we take false conceptions to be such But to himself and others it is known 1. At present by clear uncontrolled Miracles which are Gods attestation which if men shew we are bound in this case to believe them 2. For the Future by the event when things so plainly John 3. 2. John 13. 19. 14. 20. Luke 21. 7 9 28 31 36. Matth. 5. 18. 24. 34. 21. 4. come to pass as prove the prediction to be of God He therefore that giveth you not by certain Miracles uncontrolled a just proof that he is sent of God is to be heard with a suspended belief you must stay till the event shew whether he say true or not And not act any thing in the mean time upon an unproved presumption either of the truth or falshood of his words 4. If you are in doubt whether that which he speaketh be contrary to Gods Word or not you must hear him with a proportionable suspicion and give no credit to him till you have tryed whether it be so or not 5. It is a dangerous snare and sin to believe any ones Prophecies or Revelations meerly because they are very Holy persons and do most confidently averr or swear it For they may be deceived themselves As also to take hysterical or melancholy delirations or conceptions for the Revelations of the Spirit of God and so to father falshood upon God Quest. 165. May one be saved who believeth that the Scripture hath any mistake or error and believeth it not all Answ. THe chief part of the answer to this must be fetcht from what is said before about Fundamentals Rev. 6. 10. 19. 9 11. 21. 5. 22. 6. 1 John 2. 8. 5. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 c. 1. No man can be saved who believeth not that God is no lyar and that all his Word is true Because indeed he believeth not that there is a God 2. No man can be saved who believeth not the points that are essential to true Godliness nor any man that heareth the Word who believeth not all Essential to Christianity or the Christian Covenant and Religion 3. A man may be saved who believeth not some Books of Scripture as Iude 2 Pet. 2 Iohn 3 Iohn Revelations to be Canonical or the Word of God so he heartily believe the rest or the Essentials 4. He that thinketh that the Prophets Sacred Historians Evangelists and Apostles were guided to Mark 16. 16. Rom. 10. 12 13. John 3. 16 18. 1 John 4. 2 3. an Infallible delivery and recording of all the great substantial necessary points of the Gospel but not to an Infallibility in every by-expression phrase citation or circumstance doth disadvantage his own faith as to all the rest but yet may be saved if he believe the substance with a sound and practical belief Quest. 166. Who be they that give too little to the Scriptures and who too much and what is the danger of each extream Answ. I. IT is not easie to enumerate all the errors on either extream but only to give some instances of each 1. They give too little to the Scriptures who dâ—ny it to be indited by inspiration of the Infallible Spirit of God and to be wholly true 2. And they that detract from some parts or Books of it while they believe the rest 3. And they that think it is not given as a Law of God and as a Rule of faith and life 4. And they that think it is not an Universal Law and Rule for all the world but for some parts only supposing the predication of it 5. And they that think it an Imperfect Law and Rule which must be made up with the supplement of Traditions or Revelations 6. And they that think that it was adapted only to the times it was written in and James 4. 12. Isa. 33. 22. Râ—v 22. 18 19. Matth. 28. 20. Isa. 8. 16 20. Psal. 19. 7 8. 119. 130. Prov. 14. 20 22. 8 5. Deut. 12. 32. not to ours as not foreseeing what would be 7. And they that think it is culpably defective in Method 8. And they that think it culpably defective in phrase or aptness or elegancy of style 9. And they that think that it containeth not all that was necessary or fit for universal determination of that kind of things which it doth at all universally determine of As e. g. that it made two Sacraments but not all of that kind that are fit to be made but hath left men to invent and make more of the same nature and use 10. And those that think that it is fitted only to the Learned or only to the unlearned only to Princes or only to subjects c. 11. And those that think that it is but for a time and then by alteration to be perfected as Moses Law was 12. And those that think that the Pope Princes or Prelates or any men may change or alter it II. Those give too much in bulk but too little in vertue to the Scriptures 1. Who would set them up instead of the whole Law and Light of Nature as excluding this as useless where the Scripture is 2. And they that â—eign it to be instead of all Grammars Logick Philosophy and all other Arts and Sciences and to be a perfect particular Rule for every Ruler Lawyer Physicion Marriner Architect Husbandman and Tradesman to do his work by 3. And they that â—eign it to be fully sufficient to all men to prove its own authority and truth without 1 Joh. 1. 1 2 3. 3 John 12. Heb. 2. 3 4. John 21. 24. the subsidiary use of that Church-History and Tradition which telleth us the supposed Matters of fact and must help us to know what Books are Canonical and what not and without historical evidence that these are the true Books which the Prophets and Apostles wrote and the Miracles and Providences which have attested them 4. And those that think that it is sufficient for its own promulgation or the peoples instruction Ephes. 4. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. John 6.
is in two cases viz. 1. If they commit such capital crimes as God and man would have punished with death its fit they dye and then they are silenced For in this case it is supposed that their lives by their impunity are like to do more hurt than good 2. If their Heresie insufficiency scandal or any fault what ever do make them more hurtful than profitable to the Church it is fit they be cast out If their Ministry be not like to do more good than their faults to do harm let them be silenced But if it be otherwise then let them be punished in their bodies or purses rather than the peoples souls should suffer The Laws have variety of penalties for other men Will none of those suffice for Ministers But alas What talk I of their faults Search all Church History and observe whether in all ages Ministers have not been silenced rather for their duties than their faults or for not subscribing to some unnecessary opinion or imposition of a prevailing party or about some wrangling controversies which Church disturbers set afoot There is many a poor Minister would work in Bridewell or be tyed to shovell the Streets all the rest of the Week if he might but have liberty to preach the Gospel And would not such a penalty be sufficient for a dissent in some unnecessary point As it is not every fault that a Magistrate is deposed for by the Soveraign but such as make him unfit for the place so is it also with the Ministers § 39. Direct 18. Malignity and Prophaneness must not be gratified or encouraged It must be considered Direct 18. how the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8. 7 â— Gen. 3. 15. And that enmity is put between the Womans and the Serpents seed and that the whole business of the world is but the prosecution of the War between the Armies of Christ and Satan And that malignity inclineth the ungodly world to slander and reproach the servants of the Lord and they are glad of any opportunity to make them odious or to exasperate Magistrates against them And that their silencing and fall is the joy of the ungodly And if there be any Civil differences or sidings the ungodly rabble will take that side be it right or wrong which they think will do most to the downfal of the godly whom they hate Therefore besides the merits of the particular cause a Ruler that regardeth the interest of the Gospel and mens salvation must have some care that the course which he taketh against godly Ministers and people when they displease him be such as doth not strengthen the hands of evil doers nor harden them increase them or make them glad I do not say that a Ruler must be against what ever the ungodly part is for or that he must be for that which the major part of godly men are for I know this is a deceitful rule But yet that which pleaseth the malignant rabble and displeaseth or hurteth the generality of godly men is so seldome pleasing to God that its much to be suspected § 40. Direct 19. The substance of faith and the Practice of Godliness must be valued above all opinions Direct 19. and parties and worldly interests And Godly men accounted as they are caeteris paribus the best members both of Church and State If Rulers once knew the difference between a Saint and a sensualist a vile person would be contemned in their eyes and they would honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. And if they honoured them as God commandeth them they would not persecute them And if the promoting of practical Godliness were their design there were little danger of their oppressing those that must be the instruments of propagating it if ever it prosper in the World § 41. Direct 20. To this end Remember the neer and dear relation which every true believer standeth Direct 20. in to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost They are called by God his peculiar treasure his jewels Exod. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Mal. 3. 17 18. â—â—h 3. 17. 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 1. 14. 1 Joh. 4 15 16. his Children the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost God dwelleth in them by Love and Christ by faith and the Spirit by all his sanctifying gifts If this were well believed men would more reverence them on Gods account than causelesly to persecute them Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye § 42 Direct 21. Look not so much on mens infirmities as to overlook or make light of all that is good in them But look as much at the good as at the evil And then you will see reason for lenity as well as for severity and for love and tenderness rather than for hatred and persecution And you will discern that those may be serviceable to the Church in whom blinded malice can see nothing worthy of honour or respect § 43. Direct 22. Estimate and use all lesser matters as means to spiritual worship and practical holiness Direct 22. If there be any thing of worth in Controversies and Ceremonies and such other matters of inferiour rank it is as they are a means to the power of Godliness which is their end And if once they be no otherwise esteemed they will not be made use of against the interest of Godliness to the silencing of the Preachers and persecuting the professours of it § 44. Direct 23. Remember that the Understanding is not Free save only participative as it is Direct 23. subject to the will It acteth of it self per modum naturae and is necessitated by its object further than as it is under the power of the will A man cannot hold what opinion he would himself nor be against what he would not have to be true much less can he believe as another man commandeth him My understanding is not at my own command I cannot be of every mans belief that is uppermost Evidence and not force is the natural means to compell the mind even as Goodness and not force is the natural means to win mens Love It is as wise a thing to say Love me or I will kill thee as to say Believe me or I will kill thee § 45. Direct 24. Consider that it is essential to Religion to be above the authority of man unless as Direct 24. they subserve the authority of God He that worshippeth a God that is subject to any man must subject his Religion to that man But this is no Religion because it is no God whom he worshippeth But if the God whom I serve be above all men my Religion or service of him must needs be also above the will of men § 46. Direct 25. Consider that an obedient disposition towards Gods Laws and a tender Conscience
this or subscribe this without the guilt of a deliberate sin and I cannot sin without displeasing God and hindering my salvation He that dare wilfully sin himself and make it his deliberate choice and dare play away his own salvation at the poorest game that the Devil will invite him to and will sell his own soul at the basest price even for a little pelf or pleasure or high titles for so short a time certainly this man is unlike to be very tender of the souls of others or to stick at scandalizing and ensnaring them or to care any more to murder souls than a Butcher doth to kill a Hog Iudas's heart will make them sell their Lord or his flock at Iudas's price and prepare themselves for Iudas's reward And hence it is that the Carnal seed even within the Church hath ordinarily persecuted the spiritual seed For saith Paul As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Gal. 4. 29. § 26. Direct 4. To be well acquainted with the methods of Satan and the way of particular temptations Direct 4. is a great help against your scandalizing others He that seeth the Devil as the principal in each temptation and knoweth in what manner he engageth his instruments to carry on his work and whither all this tendeth at the last will scarce be willing to serve such a master in so bad a work Remember that scandalizers and tempters of others and hinderers of mens salvation are the servants of the Devil and are executing his malice for the damnation of their brethrens souls And what reward can they expect for such a work from such a master The Devil useth them but as men do Ferrets whose mouths are sealed because they must not partake of the prey but only bring it to their masters hand Live in a constant watchful resistance of temptations your selves and you will have no mind to the drudgery of tempting others § 27. Direct 5. Set not your selves upon any worldly ambitious design For the Love of the Riches Direct 5. and Honours of the World will not only engage you in a course of sinning but also make it seem your interest to make others as bad and miserable as your selves and to drive them on to serve your interests by their sin § 28. Direct 6. Take â—heed lest a fleshly inclination do draw you to the Love of fleshly pleasures Direct 6. and that your minds be not set upon the pleasing of your fansies sense or appetite either in meat or drink or cloaths or dwellings or recreations or any such delights If once the Love of these grow strong it will conquer your reason and seduce it into Libertinism and make you think that a voluptuous flesh-pleasing life so it be not by gross disgraced sins is but the lawful use of the Creature which Christ hath purchased not only for our necessity but for our delight and that the contrary opinion is but the too much rigour of such as understand not their Christian liberty § 29. Direct 7. Be not rashly and ignorantly zealous in soliciting and importuning others to your Direct 7. private opinions before you are certain that they are of God O what abundance of zeal and labour hath many a man laid out to make others of his mind in the points of Antinomiâ—nism Aâ—abaptism Separation Popery c. thinking that the saving of their souls had lain upon it And at last they find that as they erred themselves so all their labour was but to scandalize the weak and lay a stumbling block in their way to Heaven § 30. Direct 8. Never perswade any man much less compell him to any thing unnecessary Direct 8. which be taketh to be a sin whatever you take it for your selves For if he judge it a sin it is a sin to him No man can innocently do that which he thinketh is forbidden him of God And shall a thing unnecessary be preferred before the saving of a soul Yea before the souls of thousands as by many merciless men it is Indeed if there be an Antecedent necessity as well as a lawfulness in the thing and such a necessity as is not in your power to take away then the Doing it will be his sin and the not doing it his greater sin and the greater sin is greatliest to be avoided but by convenient means § 31. Direct 9. Remember the charge which you have of the souls of one another Though you Direct 9. be not Magistrates or Pastors For their care of souls is so unquestionable and so great that scandal in them is like Parents murdering their own Children Yet no private man must say as Cain Am I my brothers keeper Every man is bound to do his best for the saving of his Neighbour Much more to forbear infecting seducing scandalizing and destroying him § 32. Direct 10. Keep up a special tenderness of the weak So doth God himself and so must Direct 10. we He gathereth the Lambs with his arms c. Isa. 40. 11. If his Infants cry he doth not therefore knock out their brains or turn them out of doors Nor doth he say they are not his Children for every ignorance or pievish passion which they are guilty of Christ doth not turn men out of his School because they want knowledge For why then will he have little Children come and what do they come for but to learn He doth not hate his new born babes but feedeth and nurseth them with a special tenderness And he hath commanded and communicated the like tenderness to his Ministers who must not be weak with the weak and froward with the froward but in meekness and patience must bear with the weak and endure their bitterest censures and requitals For the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves c. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. And if they are long learning before they come to the Knowledge of the truth they are not therefore to be cast off He that can read Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 12. 12. 8. Gal. 6. and yet can be so merciless and cruel as to cast men out of the Ministry or Church or to ruine them for tolerable weakness which God hath so earnestly charged us to bear with in our Brethren either he doth not understand what he readeth or not believe it or hath somewhat else which he more regardeth at his heart than the Authority or Love of God § 33. Direct 11. Do not censure every man to be wilful or obstinate who is not of your opinion Direct 11. when he hath heard your reasons how clear soever they may may seem to you Alas how many things are there besides wilful obstinacy to hinder one man from being as wiâ—e as another If a few times repeating over the Reasons of an opinion is
Sedition among the people and accounting them as the filth and off-scouring of the world That zeal which murdered and destroyed many hundred thousand of the Waldenses and Albigenses and thirty thousand or forty thousand in one French Massacre and two hundred thousand in one Irish Massacre and which kindled the Marian Bonefires in England and made the Powder Mine and burnt the City of London and keepeth up the Inquisition I say that zeal will certainly think it a service to the Church that is their Sect to write the most odious lyes and slanders of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza and any such excellent servants of the Lord. So full of horrid impudent lyes are the writings of not one but many Sects against those that were their chief opposers that I still admonish all posterity to see good evidence for it before they believe the hard sayings of any factious Historian or Divine against those that are against his party It is only men of eminent conscience and candour and veracity and impartiality who are to be believed in their bad report of others except where notoriety or very good evidence doth command belief above their own authority and veracity A siding factious zeal which is hotter for any Sect or party than for the common Christianity and Catholick Church is alwayes a railing a lying and a slandering zeal and is notably described Iames 3. as earthly sensual and devilish causing envy strife and confusion and every evil work Direct 4. Observe well the Commonness of this sin of backbiting that it may make you the more afraid Direct 4. of falling into that which so few do scape I will not say among high and low rich and poor Court and Countrey how common is this sin but among men professing the greatest zeal and strictness in Religion how few make conscience of it Mark in all companies that you come into how common it is to take liberty to say what they think of all men yea to report what they hear though they dare not say that they believe it And how commonly the relating of other mens faults and telling what this man or that man is or did or said is part of the chatt to waste the hour in And if it be but true they think they sin not Nay nor if they did but hear that it is true For my part I must profess that my conscience having brought me to a custome of rebuking such backbiters I am ordinarily censured for it either as one that loveth contradiction or one that defendeth sin and wickedness by taking part with wicked men And all because I would stop the course of this common vice of evil-speaking and backbiting where men have no call And I must thankfully profess that among all other sins in the world the sins of SELFISHNESSE PRIDE and BACKBITING I have been most brought to hate and fear by the observation of the commonness of them even in persons seeming godly Nothing hath fixed an apprehension of their odiousness so deeply in me nor engaged my heart against them above all other sins so much as this lamentable experience of their prevalence in the world among the more Religious and not only in the prophane Direct 5. Take not the honesty of the person as sufficient cause to hear or believe a bad report of Direct 5. others It is lamentable to hear how far men otherwise honest do too often here offend Suspect evil speakers and be not over-credulous of them Charity thinketh not evil not easily and hastily believeth it Lyars are more used to evil speaking than men of truth and credit are It is no wrong to the best that you believe him not when he backbiteth without good evidence Direct 6. Rebuke backbiters and encourage them not by hearkning to their tales Prov. 25. 23. Direct 6. The north wind driveth away rain So doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue It may be they think themselves religious persons and will take it for an injury to be driven away with an angry countenance But God himself who loveth his servants better than we is more offended at their sin and that which offendeth him must offend us We must not hurt their souls and displease God by drawing upon us the guilt of their sins for fear of displeasing them Tell them how God doth hate backbiting and advise them if they know any hurt by others to go to them privately and tell them of it in a way that tendeth to their repentance Direct 7. Use to make mention of the good which is in others except it be unseasonable and will Direct 7. seem to be a promoting of their sin Gods giâ—ts in every man deserve commendations And we have allowance to mention mens vertues oftner than to mention their vices Indeed when a bad man is praised in order to the disparagement of the good or to honour some wicked cause or action against truth and godliness we must not concur in such malitious praists But otherwise we must commend that which is truly commendable in all And this custome will have a double benefit against backbiting It will use your own tongues to a contrary course and it will rebuke the evil tongues of others and be an example to them of more charitable language Direct 8. Understand your selves and speak often to others of the sinfulness of evil speaking and Direct 8. backbiting Shew them the Scriptures which condemn it and the intrinsecal malignity which is in it as here followeth Direct 9. Make conscience of just reproof and exhorting finners to their faces Go tell them of Direct 9. it privately and lovingly and it will have better effects and bring you more comfort and cure the sin of backbiting Tit. 3. The Evil of Backbiting and Evil Speaking § 1. 1. IT is forbidden of God among the heinous damning sins and made the character of a notorious wicked person and the avoiding of it is made the mark of such as are accepted of God and shall be saved Rom. 1. 29 30. it is made the mark of a reprobate mind and joyned with murder and hating God viz. full of envy debate deceit malignity whisperers backbiters Psal. 15. 2 3. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour And when Paul describeth those whom he must sharply rebuke and censure he just describeth the factious sort of Christians of our times 2 Cor. 12. 20. For I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not Lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes backbitings whisperings swellings tumults Ephes. 4. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another and tender hearted § 2. 2. It is