the name of the Lord e. g. to avoid a notorious obstinate offender and so to obey the command of God that is though we may charge them in the name of the Lord to consent and obey and do their duty yet if their Iudgements remain unconvinced in a case which is to them obscure we have no more to do but satisfie our selves that we have done our duty So that when we have quarrelled never so long what is it but the Peoples consent that the moderate men on one side do require and consent the other side requireth also Call it what else you will whether a Government or an Authority or a Liberty Consent is the thing which both require And are we not then in the matter agreed Peruse for this Mr. Lyfords words before cited See also what the leading men for Presbyterian Government do not only acknowledge but maintain as effectually as others as Dav. Blondellus de Jure plebis in Regim Eccles Calvin Institut l. 4. c. 12. sect 4. Ne quis tale judicium spernat aut parvi aestimet se Fidelium suffragiis damnatum testatus est Dominus c. Ita Zanchius ubi sup and many more Indeed this Consent of the people is not sine qua non to the Pastors performance of his own part viz. Charging the Church in Christs name to avoid the Communion of such a notorious obstinate offender and suspending his own acts towards him and so charging them to receive the innocent or penitent For if the people consent not to avoid such and so would exclude all Discipline yet the Pastor must charge it on them and do his part But it is sine qua non to their actual rejecting and avoiding that offender In a word we must Teach them their duty and require it and they and we must obey and do it and neither they nor we may oblige any to sin Obj. But we are not agreed about the matter of the Church that must be Governed Answ Peruse the qualifications required in Church-members in the writings of the moderate on both sides and see what difference you can find Are not both agreed that Professors of true faith and holiness cohabiting and consenting are a true Church and when they contradict that Profession by wicked actions Doctrine or life they are to be dealt with by Discipline Though I confess in our practise we very much differ most that I know running into one of the extreams of loosness or rigor 3. MY third and last Request is that all the faithful Ministers of Christ would without any more delay Unite and Associate for the furtherance of each other in the work of the Lord and the maintaining of Unity and Concord in his Churches And that they would not neglect their Brotherly meetings to those ends nor yet spend them unprofitably but improve them to their edification and the effectual carrying on the work Read that excellent Letter of Edmond Grindal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to Q. Elizabeth for Ministerial meetings and exercises such Bishops would have prevented our contentions and wars You may see it in Fullers new History of the Church of England And let none draw back that accord in the substantials of faith and godliness Yea if some should think themselves necessitated I will not say to Schism least I offend them but to separate in publike worship from the rest me thinks if they be indeed Christians they should be willing to hold so much Communion with them as they can and to consult how to manage their differences to the least disadvantage to the common truths and Christian cause which they all profess to own and prefer And here I may not silently pass by an uncharitable slander which some Brethren of the Prelatical Iudgement have divulged of me far and near viz. That while I perswade men to Accommodation it was long of me that the late Proclamation or Ordinance was procured for silencing all Sequestred Ministers viz. by the late Worcestershire Petition which they say was the occasion of it and they falsly report that I altered it after the subscription To which I say 1. It was the Petition of many Iustices and the grand Iury and thousands of the County as well as me 2. There is not a word in it nor ever was against any godly man but only that the notoriously insufficient and scandalous should not be permitted to meddle with the mysteries of Christ specially the Sacraments which we desired should have impartially extended to all parties alike And so much of this as was granted we cannot but be thankful for whoever grudge at it and wish it had been fully granted 3. I desire nothing more then that all able godly faithful Ministers of what side soever in our late State differences may not only have liberty but encouragement For the Church hath not any such to spare were they ten times more In a word I would have those of what party soever to have Liberty to preach the Gospel whose errours or miscarriages are not so great as that probably they will do as much hurt as good Brethren I crave your pardon for the infirmities of this address and earnestly longing for the success of your Labours I shall daily beg of God that he would perswade you to those duties which I have here requested you to perform and would preserve and prosper you therein against all the Serpentine subtilty and rage that is now engaged to oppose and hinder you April 15. 1656. Your unworthy fellow-servant Rich. Baxter TO The Lay-Reader THE reason why I have called this volumn the first Part of the book is because I intend if God enable me and give me time a Second Part containing the duty of the people in relation to their Pastors and therein to shew 1. The Right and Necessity of a Ministry 2. The way to know which is the true Church and Ministry and how we justifie our own calling to this office and how false Prophets and Teachers must be discerned 3. How far the people must assist the Pastors in the work of the Cospel and the Pastors put them on and make use of them to that end And 4. How far the people must submit to their Pastors and what other Duty they must perform in that Relation But because my time and strength is so uncertain that I know not whether I may live to publish my yet-imperfect preparations on this subject I dare not let this first Part come into your hands without a word of caution and advice lest you should misunderstand or misapply it 1. The caution that I must give you is in two parts 1. Entertain not any unworthy thoughts of your Pastors because we here confess our own sins and aggravate them in order to our humiliation and reformation You know it is men and not Angels that are put by God in the office of Church-guides And you know that we are imperfect men Let Papists and Quakers pretend to a sinless perfection we
contrarios actus mutantur ita ut clerici quod non absque dolore cordis fateor impudici bilingues ebrii turpis lucri cupidi habentes fidem ut verius dicam infidelitatem in conscientia impura non probati in bono sed in malo praesciti ministrantes innumera crimina habentes sacro ministerio adsciscantur Audistis etiam illo die quo multo dignius multoque rectius erat ut ad carcerem vel catastam poenalem quam ad sacerdotium traheremini domino scitante quem se esse putarunt discipuli Petrum respondisse Tu es Christus filius Dei eique dominum pro tali confessione dixisse Beatus es Simon Barjona quia caro sanguis non revelavit tibi sed pater meus qui in coelis est Ergo Petrus à Deo Patre doctus rectè Christum consitetur Vos autem moniti à patre vestro Diabolo iniquè salvatorem malis actibus denegatis Vero sacerdoti dicitur tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam Vos quidem assimilamini viro stulto qui aedificavit domum suam super arenam Notandum vero est quod insipientibus in aedificanda domo arenarum pendulae mobilitati Dominus non cooperatur secundum illud Fecerunt sibi reges non per me Itidemque quod sequitur eadem sonat dicendo Et portae Inferi non praevalebunt ejusque peccata intelliguntur De vestra quidem exitiabili factura pronunciantur Venerunt flumina flaverunt venti impegerunt in domum illam cecidit fuit ruina ejus magna Petro ejusque successoribus dicit Dominus tibi dabo claves regni coelorum Vobis vero Non novi vos discedite à me operarii iniquitatis ut separati sinistrae partis hoedi eatis in ignem aeternum Itemque omni sancto sacerdoti promittitur Et quaecunque solveris super terram erunt soluta in coelis quaecunque ligaveris super terram erunt ligata in coelis Sed quomodo vos aliquid solvetis ut sit solutum in coelis à coelo ob scelera adempti immanium peccatorum funibus compediti Ut Solomon quoque ait funiculis peccatorum suorum unusquisque constringitur Qua ratione aliquid in terra ligabitis quod supra mundum etiam ligetur propter vosmetpsos qui ita ligati iniquitatibus in hoc mundo tenemini ut in coelis nequaquam ascendatis sed in infausta tartari ergastula non conversi in hac vita ad dominum decedatis Nec sibi quisquam sacerdotum de corporis mundi solum conscientia supplaudat cum eorum quibus praeest si propter ejus imperitiam seu desidiam seu adulationem perierint in die judicii de ejusdem manibus veluti interfectoris animae exquirantur Quia nec dulcior mors quam quae infertur ab unoquoque homineque malo alioquin non dixisset Apostolus velut paternum legatum suis successoribus derelinquens Mundus ego sum ab omnium sanguine non enim subterfugi quo minus annuntiarem vobis omne ministerium Dei. Multum namque usu ac frequentia peccatorum inebriati incessanter irruentibus vobis scelerum cumulatorum acsi undis quassati unam veluti post naufragium in qua ad vivorum terram evadatis poenitentiae tabulam toto animae nisu exquirite ut avertatur furor Domini à vobis misericorditer dicentis nolo mortem peccatoris sed ut convertatur vivat Ipse omnipotens Deus totius consolationis misericordiae paucissimos bonos pastores conservet ab omni malo municipes faciat civitatis Hierusalem coelestis hoc est sanctorum omnium congregationis Pater Pilius spiritus sanctus cui sit honor gloria in secula seculorum Amen If the English translation of this book for translated it is long ago do fall into the hands of the vulgar they will see what language the Brittish Clergy received from one that was neither a censorious railer nor schismatically self-opinionated Perhaps some will say that the matter is not much amended when in former times we were almost all of a mind and now we have so many Religions that we know not well whether we have any at all Answ 1. Every different opinion is not another Religion 2. This is the common Popish argument against Reformation as if it were better that men believed nothing fide divina then enquire after truth for fear of misbelief And as if they would have all ungodly that they might be all of a mind I am sure that the most of the people in England where ever I came did make Religion and the reading of Scripture or speaking of the way to heaven the matter of their bitter scorn and reproach And would you have us all of that mind again for fear of differences A charitable wish 3. If others run into the other extream will that be any excuse to you Christs Church hath alwaies suffered between profane Unbelievers and Heretical dividers as he suffered himself on the Cross between two thieves And will the sin of one excuse the other 4. And yet I must say lest I be impiously blind and ungrateful that through the great mercy of God the matter is so far amended that many hundred drunken swearing ignorant negligent scandalous Ministers are cast out and we have many humble godly painful teachers in a County for a few that we had before This is so visibly true that when the godly are feasted who formerly were almost famished and beaten for going abroad to beg their bread you can hardly by all your arguments or Rhetorick perswade them that the times are no better with them then they were though men of another Nation may possibly believe you in such reports I bless God for the change that I see in this Countrey and among the people even in my own charge which is such as will not permit me to believe that the case is as bad with them as formerly it hath been I say with Minutius Foelix p. 401. mihi Quid ingrati sumus quid nobis invidemus Si veritas divinitatis nostri temporis aetate maturuit Fruamur nostro bono Et recti sententiam temperemus cohibeatur superstitio impietas expietur religio servetur It is the sinful unhappiness of some mens minds that they can hardly think well of the best words or waies of those whom they disaffect And they usually disaffect those that cross them in their corrupt proceedings and plainly tell them of their faults And they are ready to judge of the reprovers spirit by their own and to think that all such sharp reproofs proceed from some disaffection to their persons or partial opposition to the opinions which they hold And therefore they will seldom regard the reproofs of any but those of their own party who will seldom deal plainly with them because they are of their party But plain dealers are
alwaies approved in the end And the time is at hand when you shall confess that those were your truest friends He that will deal plainly against your sins in uprightness and honesty will deal as plainly for you against the sins of any that would injure you For he speaks not against sin because it is yours but because it is sin It is an observable passage that is reported by many and Printed by one how the late King Charls who by the Bishops instigation had kept Mr. Prin so long in prison and twice cropt his ears for writing against their Masks and Plaies and the high and hard proceedings of the Prelates when he read his notable voluminous speech for an acceptance of the Kings Concessions and an agreement with him thereupon did not long before his death deliver the Book to a friend that stood by him saying Take this Book I give it thee as a Legacy and believe it this Gentleman is the Cato of the Age. The time will come when plain dealing will have a better Construction then it hath while prejudice doth turn the heart against it I shall stand no longer on the Apologetical part I think the foregoing Objections being answered there is no great need of more of this The Title of the Book it self is Apologetical which if I tell you not I may well expect that some of my old ingenuous Interpreter should put another sense upon it I pretend not to the Sapience of Gildas nor to the Sanctity of Salvian as to the degree but by their names I offer you an excuse for plain dealing If it was used in a much greater measure by men so wise and holy as these why should it in a lower measure be dis-allowed in another At least from hence I have this encouragement that the plain dealing of Gildas and Salvian being so much approved by us now they are dead how much soever they might be despised or hated while they were living by them whom they did reprove at the worst I may expect some such success in times to come But my principal business is yet behind I must now take the boldness Brethren to become your Monitor concerning some of the necessary duties of which I have spoken in the ensuing discourse If any of you should charge me with arrogancy or immodesty for this attempt as if hereby I accused you of negligence or judged my self sufficient to admonish you I crave your candid interpretation of my boldness assuring you that I obey not the counsel of my flesh herein but displease my self as much as some of you and had rather have the ease and peace of silence if it would stand with duty and the Churches good But it is the meer necessity of the souls of men and my desire of their salvation and the prosperity of the Church which forceth me to this Arrogancy and Immodesty if so it must be called For who that hath a tongue can be silent when it is for the honour of God the welfare of his Church and the everlasting happiness of so many persons 1. And the first and main matter which I have to propound to you is Whether it be not the unquestionable duty of the generality of Ministers in these three Nations to set themselves presently to the work of Catechizing and Personal Instructing all that are to be taught by them who will be perswaded to submit thereunto I need not here stand to prove it having sufficiently done it in the following discourse Can you think that holy wisdom will gain-say it Will zeal for God will delight in his service or love to the souls of men gain-say it 1. That people must be taught the Principles of Religion and matters of greatest necessity to salvation is past doubt among us 2. And that they must be taught it in the most edifying advantagious way I hope we are agreed 3. And that personal Conference and Examination and Instruction hath many excellent advantages for their good is beyond dispute and afterward manifested 4. As also that personal Instruction is commended to us by Scripture and the practices of the servants of Christ and approved by the godly of all ages so far as I can find without contradiction 5. It is past doubt that we should perform this great duty to all the people or as many as we can For our love and care of their souls must extend to all If there be a 1000. or 500. ignorant people in your Parish it is a poor discharge of your duty now and then occasionally to speak to some few of them and let the rest alone in their ignorance if you are able to afford them help 6. And it is as certain that so great a work as this is should take up a considerable part of our time 7. And as certain is it that all duties should be done in order as far as may be and therefore should have their appointed times And if we are agreed to practise according to these commonly acknowledged truths we need not differ upon any doubtful circumstances Obj. We teach them in publike and how then are we bound to teach them man by man besides Answ You pray for them in Publike Must you not also pray for them in private Paul taught every man and exhorted every man and that both publikely and from house to house night and day with tears The necessity and benefits afterward mentioned prove it to be your duty But what need we add more when experience speaks so loud I am daily forced to admire how lamentably ignorant many of our people are that have seemed diligent hearers of me this ten or twelve years while I spoke as plainly as I was able to speak Some know not that each person in the Trinity is God Nor that Christ is God and man Nor that he took his humane nature into heaven Nor many the like necessary principles of our faith Yea some that come constantly to private meetings are found grosly ignorant Whereas in one hours familiar instruction of them in private they seem to understand more and better entertain it then they did in all their lives before Obj. But what obligation lyeth on us to tye our selves to certain daies for the performance of this work Answ This is like the Libertines plea against family prayer They ask where are we bound to pray morning and evening Doth not the nature and end of the duty plainly tell you that an appointed time conduceth to the orderly successful performance of it How can people tell when to come if the time be not made known You will have a fixed day for a Lecture because people cannot else tell when to come without a particular notice for each day And it is as necessary here because this must be a constant duty as well as that Obj. But we have many other businesses that sometimes may interrupt the course Answ Weightyer business may put by our preaching even on the Lords day but we must
Laws of Christ and all diligence for salvation because they observed that those men that were such were so many of them hated and persecuted by the Rulers though on the occasions before mentioned And here was the foundation of our greatest misery laid While some of the Rulers themselves began to turn their hatred against practical godliness which corrupted nature hates in all and the common people took the hint and no longer confined the word Puritan to the Non-conformists but applyed it commonly through all parts of the Land to those that would but speak seriously of heaven and tell men of Death and Judgement and spend the Lords day in preparation thereto and desire others to do the like that did but pray in their families and keep their children and servants on the Lords day to learn the way to salvation in stead of letting them spend it in gaming or revelling they that did but reprove a swearer or a drunkard these were become the Puritans and the Precisians and the hated ones of the time so that they became a by-word in all the Towns and Villages in England that ever I knew or heard of as to these things And thus when the Prelates had engaged the vulgar in their cause and partly by themselves and partly by them had so far changed their cause as that all serious Christians that feared sin and were most diligent for salvation were presently engaged among their adversaries and they were involved with the rest though they did nothing against the Government or Ceremonies and the most ignorant and impious became the friends and agents of the times and everywhere made the most pious and sedulous Christians a common scorn to the dishonour of God and the hardening of the wicked and discouraging of the weak and filling men with prejudice against a godly life and hindring many thousands from the way of salvation then did God himself appear more evidently as interested in the quarrel and rose against them and shamed them that had let in scorn and shame upon his waies And this even this was the very thing that brought them down Besides this there was scarce such a thing as Church-Government or Discipline known in the Land but only this harassing of those that dissented from them In all my life I never lived in the Parish where one person was publikely admonished or brought to publike penitence or excommunicated though there were never so many obstinate drunkards whoremongers or vilest offenders Only I have known now and then one for getting a bastard that went to the Bishops Court and paid their sees and I heard of two or three in all the Countrey in all my life that stood in a white sheet an hour in the Church But the antient Discipline of the Church was unknown And indeed it was made by them impossible when one man that lived at a distance from them and knew not one of many hundreds of the Flock did take upon him the sole Jurisdiction and executed it not by himself but by a lay-Chancellor excluding the Pastors of the several Congregations who were but to joyn with the Church-wardens and the Apparitors in presenting men and bringing them into their Courts And an impossible task must needs be unperformed And so the controversie as to the letter and outside was Who should be the Governors of all the particular Churches but as to the sense and inside of it it was Whether there should be any effectual Church-Government or not Whereupon those that pleaded for Discipline were called by the New name of Disciplinarians as if it had been a kind of Heresie to desire Discipline in the Church At last the heat began to grow greater and new impositions raised new adversaries When conformable Puritans began to bear the great reproach there being few of the Non-conformists left Then must they also be gotten into the Net Altars must be bowed to or towards All must publish a Book for dancing and sports on the Lords day disabling the Masters of Families parents though they had smal time on the week-daies by reason of their poverty or labour to keep in their own children or families from dancing on that day that they might instruct them in the matters of God If a man as he read a Chapter to his family had perswaded them to observe and practice it and with any reasons urged them thereto this was called expounding and was enquired of in their Articles to be presented together with Adultery and such like sins so also was he used that had no preaching at home and would go hear a conformable Preacher abroad So that multitudes have I known exceedingly troubled or undone for such matters as these when not one was much troubled for scandalous crimes Then Lectures were put down and afternoon Sermons and expounding the Catechism or Scripture in the afternoons And the violence grew so great that many thousand families left the Land and many godly able Ministers Conformists as well as others were fain to flie and become Exiles some in one Countrey and some in another and most in the remote American parts of the world Thither went Cotten Hooker Davenport Shephard Allen Cobbet Noyes Parker with many another that deserved a dwelling place in England Yet I must profess I should scarce have mentioned any of this nor taken it for so hainous a crime had it been only cruelty to the persons of these men though they had dealt much hardlyer with them then they did and if it had not been greater cruelty to the Church and if they had but had competent men for their places when they were cast out But alas the Churches were pestered with such wretches as are our shame and trouble to this day Abundance of meer Readers and drunken profane deboist men were the Ministers of the Churches so that we have been this many years endeavouring to cleanse the Church of them and have not fully effected it to this day And many that had more plausible tongues did make it their chief business to bring those that they called Puritans into disgrace and to keep the people from being such So that I must needs say that I knew no place in these times where a man might not more safely have been drunken every week as to their punishment then to have gone to hear a Sermon if he had none at home For the common people readily took the hint and increased their reproach as the Rulers did their persecâ—tion so that a man could not in any place of England that I came in have said to a swearer or a drunkard O do not sin against God and wound or hazard your own soul but he should have been presently â—ooted at as a Puritan He could not have said to an ignorant or careleâ—s neighbour Remember your everlasting state prepare for death and Judgement or have talked of any Scripture matters to them but he was presently jeered as a Puritan or Precisian and Scripture it self was
an apprentiship Who can love or seek or desire that which he knoweth not Convince them what a contradiction it is to be a Christian and yet to refuse to learn For what is a Christian but a Disciple of Christ and how can he be his Disciple that refuseth to be taught by him and he that refuseth to be taught by his Ministers refuseth to be taught by him for Christ will not come down from heaven again to teach them by his own mouth but hath appointed his Ministers to keep School and teach them under him To say therefore that they will not be taught by his Ministers is to say they will not be taught by Christ and that is to say they will be none of his Disciples or no Christians Abundance of such undenyable Evidences we have at hand to convince them of their duty Make them understand that it is not an arbitrary business of our own devising and imposing but Necessity is laid upon us and if we look not to every member of the flock according to our power they may perish in their own iniquities but their blood will be required at our hands It is God and not we that is the contriver and imposer of the work therefore they blame God more then us in accusing it Would they be so cruel as to wish a Minister to cast away his own soul knowingly and wilfully for fear of troubling them in hindering their damnation especially acquaint them fully with the true nature of the Ministerial office and the Churches necessity of it how it consisteth in Teaching and Guiding all the Flock and that as they must come to the Congregation as Scholars to School so must they be content to give account of their learning and to be instructed man by man Let them know what a tendency this hath to their salvation What a profitable improvement it will be of their time And how much vanity and evil it will prevent And when they once find that it is for their own good they will the easilyer yield to it 3. VVHen this is done it will be very necessary that according to our Agreement we give one of the Catechisms to every family in the Parish poor and rich that so they might be so far without excuse For if you leave it to themselves perhaps half of them will not so much as get them Whereas when they have them put into their hands the receiving is a kind of engagement to learn them and if they do but read the exhortation as its likely they will do it will perhaps convince them and incite them to submit And for the delivery of them the best way is for the Minister first to give notice in the Congregation that they shall be brought to their houses and then to go himself from house to house and deliver them and take the opportunity of perswading them to the work and as they go to take a Catalogue of all the persons at years of discretion in the several families that they may know whom they have to take care of and instruct and whom to expect when it cometh to their turns I have formerly in the distributing of some other Books among them desired every family to fetch them but I found more confusion and uncertainty in that way and now took this as the better But in small Parishes either way may serve And for the charge of the Books if the Minister be able it will be well for him to bear it If not the best affected of his people of the richer sort should bear it among them Or at a day of Humiliation in preparation to the work let the Collection that is wont to be for the poor be imployed to buy the Catechisms and the people be desired to be the more liberal and what is wanting the well-affected to the work may make it up And for the order of proceeding in small Parishes the matter is not great but in greater it will be needful that we take them in order family by family beginning the execution a moneth or six weeks after the delivery of the Books that they may have time to learn And thus taking them together in common they will the more willingly come and the backward will be the more ashamed to keep off 4. BEsure that you deal gently with them and take off all discouragements as effectually as you can 1. Tell them publikely that if they have learnt any other Catechism already you will not urge them to learn this unless they desire it themselves For the substance of all Catechisms that are Orthodox is the same Only our reasons for offering them this was the brevity and fulness that we might give them as much as we could in a few words and so make their work more easie Or if any of them had yet rather learn any other Orthodox Catechism let them have their choice 2. As for the old people that are of weak memories and not like to live in the world and complain that they cannot remember the words tell them that you expect not that they should overmuch perplex their minds about it but hear it oft read over and see that they understand it and get the matter into their minds and hearts and then they may be born with though they remember not the words 3. And let your dealing with those that you begin with be so gentle convincing and winning that the report of it may be an encouragement to others to come 6. IF all this will not serve to bring any particular persons to submit do not so cast them off but go to them and expostulate the case with them and know what their reasons are and convince them of the sinfulness and danger of their contempt of the help that is offered them A soul is so precious that we should not lose one for want of labour but follow them while there is any hope and not give them up as desperate till there be no remedy Before we give them over as dogs or swine let us try the utmost that we may have the experience of their obstinate contempt or renting us to warrant our forsaking them Charity beareth and waiteth long SECT II. 2. HAving used these means to procure them to come in and submit to your teaching the next thing to be considered is how you should deal most effectually with them in the work And again I must say that I think it an easier matter by far to compose and preach a good Sermon then to deal rightly with an Ignorant man for his instruction in the Necessary Principles of Religion As much as this work is contemned by some I doubt not but it will try the parts and spirits of Ministers and shew you the difference between one man and another more fully then Pulpit-preaching will do And here I shall as fitting to my purpose transcribe the words of a most Learned Orthodox and godly man Bishop Usher in his Sermon before King Iames at Wanâ—â—ed