Man is to suffer Sin upon his Brother it it lie in his way to remove it Lev. 19. 17. For to do otherwise is in Gods own Interpretation to hate him in his Heart whom he sees dangerously wounded and yet as the Priest and Levite in our Saviours Parable Luke 10. 31 32. goes on the other side of the way and lets him lie and perish for want of help 2. There is yet a more restrained notion of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which will also very well sute the design of the Text and the State of the Galatian Church and that is that which distinguisheth the Members of the Church who are in some respect more Spiritual from others who are in comparison to them elsewhere called Carnal and Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 2. 15. and 3. 1. And so seeing all the Members of the Church are not alike in Knowledge Gifts or Graces they that excell in any of these or think they do in the Phrase of Ch. 14. 37. are more especially obliged to this charitable Office as being or supposed to be furnished with greater store of spiritual Medicaments than their inferiour Brethren For the Apostle tells us that all these Gifts wherein one Christian excells another are bestowed not to capacitate them to vaunt and magnifie themselves and contemn others who in those respects are inferiour to them but they are all given to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. 7. And that the employing of them in a way of Charity is the most excellent way wherein they may be made use of v. 31. of the same Chapter But alas it is a thing to be much lamented that ordinarily from the Gnosticks downwards to these days Persons who most pretend to be extraordinarily gifted though indeed they excel only in a few new Phrases volubility of Language and impudent Boldness c. instead of charitable restoring their disjoynted Brethren most uncharitably reduce them into erroneous Opinions and rend the Body of Christ into divided Factions and separated Societies gathered too many of them out of the most Ignorant and Vicious of the Church they separate from whose spiritual Wounds they heal slightly by perswading them that to become their Proselites will sufficiently attone for all former Crimes 3. But then thirdly because whatever Applications private Persons make in kindness to their wounded Neighbours may possibly be insufficient to effect a Cure without the Assistance of a skilful Chyrurgeon therefore I must tell you that the word Spiritual here does yet admit also of a most restrained Sense to wit as it denotes those whose Calling and Employment is conversant in spiritual things that are the Teachers Guides Pastors and Rulers of the Church Including all from the Apostles downwards who are invested with those Offices in order to the good of their Souls and Spirits of Men committed to their Charge And to these only do some very Learned and Reverend Commentators though I think they are therein too narrow as I intimated before restrain the Sense of this Word in the Text. And yet I concur so far with them as to think these principally meant partly because in the apostolical Times the Charismata or special Gifts of the Spirit were most plentifully poured out upon them and so many of them as are necessary for the Conduct of the Church in all Ages since have accompanied that holy Calling to that degree as has been thought sufficient to denominate them the Spiritualty in distinction from the Temporalty in the esteem of all Christians till the Papacy abusing the Name render'd it less grateful to the ears of those who shook off that Yoke in the Reformation And partly because this very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text or Spirit of Meekness so requisite to the restoring dislocated Members is but once more used in the whole New Test and there joyned with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rod of Correcttion as attributed to the Apostle in his managery of the Corinthian Church 1 Cor. 4. 21. and lastly because we find the word Spiritual applied to those extraordinary Persons in the Church which were called Prophets and made use of as equivalent in common use thereto as in the Old Testament in Hos 9. 7. and 1 Cor. 14. 37. in the New And this Duty all that are in any Ecclesiastical Station are according to the Trust Reposed in them to mind in reference to all committed to your Inspection and are solemnly engaged thereunto in this Church of England at their Ordination they are to preach the Word to be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 1 Tim. 6. 2. and by the Rubrick before the Communion are allowed to exercise some Power of Discipline with due deference to the Bishop in case of scandalous Offenders And indeed hereof we are sure that the chief Power of Church-discipline as it was at first committed to the Apostles and Apostolical Men and by them derived by Ordination to the successive Pastors and Rulers of the Churches Planted by them so it hath always till of late Years been exercised by Bishops the whole Current of Antiquity giving us abundant Proofs hereof as to Matter of Fact who in many Cases acted therein alone but in the most weighty Matters were assisted by and acted with a Presbytery But of a Presbytery acting without and much less against the Bishop especially in inflicting Church censures I think except in Schismatical Churches the greatest Assertors of Presbytery can hardly give us one Instance And to those who are thus intrusted with Ecclesiastical Authority it belongs in the Name of Christ and with his Power in the Apostles Phrase 1 Cor. 5. 5. to determine finally the Cases of scandalous Offenders and by Church-censures to proceed against them either in order to their Recovery in case they be incurable or in order to the Preservation of the Church both in its Health and Reputation in case they be apparently irrecoverable with more or less Severity And there is a stronger Obligation lies upon them than upon all the rest of the Church to lay themselves forth to the utmost extent of their Ability and Power in the pursuance of so good a Work To wit the Trust Reposed in them by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who on the account thereof are concerned to watch for their Peoples Souls as they that must give an account And they are Pastors even such as are of the highest denomination only under him the chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. And therefore to them it belongs to use all means they can to seek out and reduce to the Fold all straying Sheep and to heal the wounded of that Flock over which the Holy Ghost has made them Overseers or Bishops that having discharged their Duty herein when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 4. the chief Shepherd shall appear they may receive a Crown of Glory
And if they be negligent therein and the Sheep perish through their Default there is a sad Doom pronounced in the Prophet Ezek. 34. 4 5 6. c. very applicable to them To which Obligation of Trust there is also in reference to their particular Charges another of Relation For the Pastors in such a Case are Fathers to their People and they reciprocally to them their Children 2 Cor. 12. 14. Gal. 4. 19. 1 John 2. 2. 4. 4. c. and therefore are they obliged to such Tenderness towards them as obligeth them to take care of them when sick or wounded as Fathers are wont to do towards their natural Children And thus have I shewn you who those spiritual Ones are to whom it belongs to restore fallen and wounded Brethren and withal told you that they are not all to perform it in the same Methods but each sort of them as their station in the Mystical Body of Christ capacitates them thereunto And indeed it is so in the natural Body also according to which the Apostle modules the Regulation of the spirial Body in the chapter before quoted 1 Cor. 12. 27. wherein he tells us that in both there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Members as we read it in particular i. e. each assigned to its particular Office and yet in those distinguâ—shed Stations and Offices they have or ought to have the same Care one for another v. 25. i. e. alike and joyntly to assist for the good each of other And as to apply it to the present Case if the least Toe in the lowest part the Foot be wounded or pained in any kind every other Member is concerned to assist the Cure the sound Leg offers it self to support the wounded one lifted up by its concurrent Motions and laid on it that it may in the easiest posture be presented to the Eye and Hand to view in what State it is and apply proper Remedies thereunto and the very Head Shoulders Neck Back and Bulk of the Body contract themselves into a narrower Compass to facilitate the Cure so should it be in the mystical Body of Christ every other Member in its proper place ought to do what belongs thereto to assist the Restitution of the Disabled one to its proper Soundness and thereby restore the whole Body to its due State of Integrity And accordingly 1 those of the Spiritualty in the lowest Notion according to our former Partition even the meanest Members of this spiritual Body are as by relation mutual Dealing Acquaintance and freedom of Conversation they have Opportunities offered them to observe what is amiss in each other and by seasonable Admonitions and Reproofs to endeavour the Reformation thereof in a private Way and when that will not do to acquaint others whom the Offenders are more likely to be influenced by of their Misdemeanours and as they see these Endeavours disappointed by obstinate Incorrigibleness and Crimes grow more Scandalous and Infectious to shew their dislike of them by lessening their Intimacies and Familiarities of Conversation with them and last of all to apply themselves to the Officers of the particular Society of Christians to whom they belong that they may in their particular Places and Subordinations use their Power to Reclaim and Reform them 2. And those spiritual Ones in the second Notion before-mentioned who are or are esteemed to be beyond the Community of Christians in Parts and Gifts or by Educaion Quality or Degree capable of doing more Good by their Influence than others are to take all occasional Advantages which Providence offers them especially among their Equals and those who have any more then ordinary Deference for them or Dependance upon them to shame and put out of Countenance bold and daring Impiety or Immorality and especially if to all other Advantages before-mentioned they have any part of legal Authority Annexed to employ that as far as it will extend to those holy Ends and withal rendring their Endeavours in that Kind more Efficacious by their own exemplary Piety and Vertue and lastly by Countenancing and Encouraging those in Ecclesiastical Authority to the utmost of their Power to the doing of their Duty that by their joynt Concurrence the greatest Offenders may as well as the meanest be brought under those due Methods of Cure in reference to their spiritual Distempers 3 And lastly those who by Office in the Church are as I before told you most peculiarly Entituled to the Denomination of spiritual Persons in the Text are when all other Means have been used and prove ineffectual to put the last Hand to this Holy and Charitable Work in their Church-judicatories to call Criminals before them when they come to their Notice by regular Information and Presentment or otherwise to examine their Facts with their particular aggravating or lessening Circumstances and upon full Examination Authoritatively to Admonish and Exhort and Reprove them and finally to pass Judgment and by the Censures of the Church to Prosecute them either to their Amendment by enjoyning them such penitential Acknowledgments of their Crimes as may testifie their Repentance for them satisfie the Church for the Scandal given by them and by the Sorrow and Shame which they have occasioned them to undergo both preserve themselves from relapsing into the same or like Sins and others by their Examples from such Courses and if they shall obstinately refuse such a Salutiferus Penance to proceed to the greater or lesser Excommunication as the Degrees of their Obstinacy deserve And lastly upon their returning to a better Mind in case those Methods through God's Grace reduce them to grant them Absolution in the Name of Christ and his Church and thereby to loosen those they have bound to forgive them restore them to the Communion of the Church and confirm their Love to them in the Sense of those Scripture Expressions used to that purpose Matth. 16 19. 18 18. John 20. 23. 2 Cor. 2. 7 8. c. And thus having shewed you all how far you are concerned in and by what Means and Methods you and all others are to perform your and their Parts in reference to so Christian a Duty I think the most proper use of all this Discourse that we can make is 1. To reflect with holy Grief upon the great Defects in point of Ecclesiastical Discipline ordained by our Saviour for so Great and Holy an End which at this Day all Christian Churches lie under and the great Danger of so many Souls in them for want of sufficient Remedies against the Distempers and Diseases they are exposed to and too often over-run withal There being hardly any Church in the World that since the Cessation of Miracles which kept the World in Awe by the Attestation they gave of the divine Authority backing the Censures of the Church with dreadful Executions of obstinate Offenders ever attained to that intrinsick Power as to be able to stand on its own Legs but has been fain to call in the Civil
Magistracy to its Assistance and in most places has too unhappily purchased its Assistance with the considerable lessening of its Orthodoxy Unity or Revenues and Diminution of its original Authority to accommodate the Interests of particular States and Kingdoms 2. Earnestly to desire as our Church Professeth to do that the godly Discipline of the Primitive Church of putting all who are Convicted of notorious Sin to open Penance were in its original Perfection restored again in order to the great Ends there mentioned that the Criminals being Punished in this World their Souls may be saved in the Day of the Lord and that others Admonished by their Example may be the more afraid to offend And such Desires expressed in our earnest Prayers to God it may be hoped may induce him in time to make all the Kingdoms of the Earth in this respect the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ according to that prophetical Promise Apoc. 11. 15. the means of fulfilling whereof and the Times and Seasons wherein it is to be Accomplished have filled the Christian World with so many Disputes from the Times of the first Chiliasts down to our Dayes and so many irregular Attempts of Indiscreet and sometimes furious Zeal to Accomplish it and we have another comfortable Promise applicable to that purpose that when the Lords Time shall come to build up his Zion he will appear in his Glory and not despise but regard the Prayer of his destitute Church c. Ps 102. 16 17. 3. And to the utmost of our Power to preserve and keep in exercise so much of it in the mean time as yet remains to us in this general Decay which though through the Indulgenoe of our Laws it reach not all Offendors yet is sufficiently assisted by them to redress if well followed most notorious Immoralâ—ties or at least to render them so uneasie to those that are guilty of them that 't is much our Fault that they dare appear so Open-faced in the sight of the Sun as they daily do So that in this Case at least it must needs be highly unreasonable for the quarelsome Dissenters from our Church to impute the abounding of such Crimes to the Church-constitution and from thence to frame colourable Excuses for their Separations from it when they themselves would they joyn with us effectually for the Prosecution of them might soon remove that Scandal out of the way which I am afraid whatever they pretend too many of them are secretly willing should continue there for the carrying on of those By-ends of their own to which they find the Prejudices thence raised so Serviceable But to shut up this Head if we cannot herein get their hearty Assistances who stand divided from us let those of us at least who profess to own parochial Communion and especially the Officers of these Churches legally Psal 106. 23. Constituted rather choose with Moses to stand alone in the Gap then endanger the breaking in of God's Wrath upon us for suffering our Laws so sar as they will extend to sleep in so general an Inundation of licentious Debauchery Let us after private Admonitions and Reproofs tryed in vain 1 Thess 5 14. by warning the Unruly make saithful Presentments of Incorrigible Offenders to the Ecclesiastical Judicatories that they may either be Restored to a sounder Constitution and better Conversation by publick Penance or the Church rid of them both as to Infection and Scandal by Excommunication 2. And thus much shall suffice to be spoken of the Duty here enjoyned and the Persons who are to perform it and what their several Parts are wherein they must contribute to so good a Work So that there now rests only on this Head the Manner how they are each of them to discharge it to be considered and that is in the Spirit of Meekness as follows in the Text he that is overtaken in a fault must be restored 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a meek manner by those that undertake the Cure For the Explication of which Phrase you must know 1 That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vertue here recommended and rendred Meekness is as Moralists define it a Vertue which Checks and keeps within due Bounds of Modcration the otherwise unruly Passions of Anger and Revenge and renders those Wild-beast like Emotions of Mans Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tame which is the proper Notion of the Greek Word 2ly That this moral Vertue as it is improved by divine Grace becomes a Fruit of the Holy Spirit and is mentioned as such by our Apostle in the Chap. next preceeding this Gal. 5. 23. v. 23. And hence Interpreters ordinarily are apt to derive the reason of this annexing Spirit to Meekness in the Text so that the Spirit of Meekness in this Notion means only such a Meekness as is the Fruit of the Spirit But I think rather the reason of joyning Spirit to Meekness here is rather to be setched from parallel Phrases in the Old Testament and so is an Hebraism as many other Forms of Speaking are in the New Testament Now the Hebrews frequently use to express any vehement Impulse or strong and frequent Propension of the Mind to such or such a thing by the Name of the spirit thereof Thus in evil things is the Spirit of Jealousie used for a strong and vehement Jealousie Num. 5. 14. A Spirit of Whoredomes for a vehement Inclination to whoredomes Hos 4. 12. A Spirit of deep sleep for a continual lethargical Propension Is 29. 10. and in good things also a Spirit of Understanding Job 20. 3. and Judgment Is 4. 4. and Counsel and the Fear of the Lord Is 11. 3. not excluding the Original of them as deriving themselves from the Spirit of God cannote the Powerful and plentiful Operations of them A Spirit of Meekness then in the Text according to this Notion denotes a strong Inclination to and a large Proportion of Meekness upon such Occasions exercised towards fallen Brethren for your Restitution possessing and strongly influencing the Spirits of those who go about so Charitable a Work which by passionate Applications would be retarded as a Wound in the Body by too rigid Handling is oftentimes the longer e'er it be Cured 3. That the Meekness the Spirit whereof is here recommended is not to be understood in a sâ—rict philosophical Sense as it is confined to the Regulation of the Passions of Anger and Revenge only but in a larger Notion as it lays Restraints also on those of Pride and Contempt of others And so it includes in its Compass those excellent Qualities that follow that is first of Patience in undergoing the greatest Evils from God as owning that we deserve worse and thankfulness for the least Mercies as judging our selves unworthy of them 2 modest Submission to our Superiours among Men obeying their Lawful and candidly interpreting their dubious Commands 3 all obliging Kindness and respectful Civilities to our Equals rather preferring them in Honour then